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Ex  Libris 
C.  K.  OGDEN 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 
THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


MRS.    FITZHERBERT    AND 
GEORGE  IV 


MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

AND 

GEORGE    IV 


BY 


W.  H.  WILKINS,  M.A,  F.S.A. 

AUTHOR  OF 
"THE  LOVE  OF  AN  UNCROWNED  QUEEN" 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOL.  I 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS 


LONGMANS,    GREEN,    AND    CO. 

39  PATERNOSTER  ROW,  LONDON 

NEW  YORK  AND  BOMBAY 

1905 

All  rights  reserved 


DA 


v.i 


TO 

THE  LADY  CONSTANCE   LESLIE 

YOUNGEST   DAUGHTER 

OF 

MRS.   FITZHERBERT'S   ADOPTED    DAUGHTER 
THIS   BOOK   IS   DEDICATED 


PREFACE 

THE  marriage  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  and  George, 
Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  George  IV.,  is  one 
of  the  romances  of  the  later  Georgian  era.  The 
extraordinary  secrecy  that  surrounded  the  marriage, 
the  fact  that  it  was  twice  denied  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  the  persistence  of  the  rumour  that  as- 
serted its  existence,  the  religious  and  constitutional 
questions  involved  by  the  secret  marriage  of  the 
heir-apparent  to  the  Throne  with  a  Roman  Catholic 
lady  of  good,  but  not  of  royal,  birth,  combine  to 
make  it  one  of  the  most  interesting  events  in  the 
history  of  the  House  of  Hanover. 

Though  references  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  more  or 
less  correct,  and  more  or  less  detailed,  may  be  found 
in  many  letters,  memoirs,  and  diaries  of  the  period, 
there  is  a  great  lack  of  definite  information  concern- 
ing herself  and  her  marriage  with  the  Prince  of 
Wales.  Her  personality  was  a  very  elusive  one, 
and  her  dislike  to  publicity  deepened  the  mystery 
which  surrounded  her  throughout  her  long  life. 
Yet  it  was  her  intention  that  her  authorised  bio- 
graphy should  one  day  be  written,  and  the  truth 
of  her  marriage  be  told.  To  that  end,  in  1833, 


Vlll 


PREFACE 


she  reserved  certain  papers  from  destruction,  and 
deposited  them  in  Messrs.  Coutts's  Bank ;  to  that 
end  also  she  dictated  to  Lord  Stourton,  her  cousin 
and  trustee,  a  short  narrative  of  her  life,  to  be 
published  when  he  should  think  fit.  Lord  Stourton 
died  without  having  completed  the  task  ;  for  though, 
with  Lord  Albemarle,  he  was  a  trustee  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert's  papers  at  Coutts's  Bank,  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  who  represented  the  late  king,  George 
IV.,  refused  him  permission  to  see  them.  Before 
his  death  in  1846,  Lord  Stourton  committed  to  his 
brother,  the  Hon.  Charles  Langdale,  the  duty 
which  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  laid  upon  him.  Mr. 
Langdale,  like  his  brother,  Lord  Stourton,  failed, 
for  reasons  given  in  detail  elsewhere,1  to  obtain 
the  papers  at  Coutts's  Bank,  which  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert had  placed  there  for  the  express  purpose 
of  vindicating  her  honour ;  but  he  published  in 
1856  a  brief  memoir,  entitled  "Memoir  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  with  an  account  of  her  Marriage  with 
H.R.H.  the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  King 
George  IV."  This  volume,  incomplete  though  it 
is,  is  the  only  memoir  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  worthy 
of  the  name,  and  nearly  all  subsequent  writers  have 
drawn  their  information  from  this  source  alone. 
Only  a  limited  number  of  copies  of  the  book  were 
printed ;  Mr.  Langdale  refused  to  allow  a  second 
edition  to  appear,  and  it  has  long  been  out  of  print. 

1   Vide  vol.  ii.,  Appendix  A,  "  The  Fitzherbert  Papers." 


PREFACE  ix 

Since  1856,  numerous  applications  have  been 
made  by  representatives  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
family,  and  others,  to  see  the  papers  which  she 
deposited  at  Coutts's  Bank,  but  these  applications 
have  always  been  refused,  as  they  were  refused  to 
Lord  Stourton  and  to  Mr.  Langdale.  How  far 
these  documents  proved  the  disputed  fact  of  her 
marriage  to  George,  Prince  of  Wales,  has  there- 
fore remained  an  open  question.  From  time  to 
time,  memoirs  have  been  published  of  famous 
personages  who  lived  in  the  later  Georgian  era, 
and  in  these,  with  few  exceptions,  the  marriage  of 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  and  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  has 
been  discussed  ;  though  the  versions  differed  widely, 
the  discussions  have  at  least  served  to  keep  alive 
the  interest  in  the  subject.  Moreover,  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert was  connected  by  birth  and  marriage  with 
many  of  our  old  Roman  Catholic  families ;  among 
these,  and  indeed  in  all  the  great  Roman  Catholic 
families  in  the  kingdom,  the  subject  of  her  relations 
with  George  IV.  is,  and  always  had  been,  a  matter 
of  great  interest.  Though  her  marriage  was  illegal, 
she  was  regarded  by  them  as  the  canonical  wife  of 
George  IV.  ;  and  the  refusal  to  publish  the  papers 
necessary  to  place  her  honour  beyond  doubt  was 
regarded  by  many  Roman  Catholics  as  a  slight 
on  their  religion,  and  by  her  family  and  friends  as 
a  slur  on  her  memory.  Moreover,  the  persistent 
refusal  for  seventy  years  to  allow  these  papers 


x  PREFACE 

to  be  published,  has  given  rise  to  many  false  and 
improbable  stories  concerning  their  contents. 

Some  three  or  four  years  ago,  certain  members 
of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  family  placed  sundry  papers 
in  my  hands  for  the  purpose  of  writing  her  bio- 
graphy in  a  fuller  and  more  connected  manner 
than  the  memoir  of  Mr.  Langdale.  It  was  felt 
that  the  time  had  arrived  for  carrying  out  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert's  wishes,  and  completing  the  task  which 
Lord  Stourton  had  failed  to  accomplish,  and  Mr. 
Langdale  had  only  partly  achieved.  The  distance 
of  time,  and  the  fact  that  all  the  characters  in  the 
drama  were  long  since  dead,  was  thought  to  form 
a  sufficient  guarantee  that  no  susceptibilities  could 
be  wounded  by  reviving  the  subject.  The  events 
of  which  I  was  to  write — of  which  I  have  written 
— took  place  nearly  a  century  ago,  some  of  them 
more  than  a  century ;  a  whole  generation,  nearly 
two  generations,  had  passed  away,  and  neither 
George  IV.  nor  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  left  any  descend- 
ants. The  story  of  their  marriage  was  therefore 
considered  to  have  passed  into  the  domain  of 
history,  and  become  a  subject  for  legitimate  his- 
torical research. 

Notwithstanding  the  difficulty,  due,  for  the  most 
part,  to  the  scanty  material  at  my  disposal,  I 
accepted  the  task,  for  the  subject  has  always 
interested  me,  and  the  Hanoverian  period  is  one 
I  have  been  working  at  for  the  last  ten  years. 


PREFACE  xi 

As  I  proceeded  with  the  work,  the  difficulties  grew 
less,  for  I  received  the  kindest  encouragement  and 
assistance  from  the  descendants  of  many  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert's  relatives  and  friends,  who  placed 
letters  and  pictures  at  my  disposal  and  gave 
me  all  information  in  their  power.  But  I  felt 
from  the  first  that  no  biography  of  Mrs.  Fitzher- 
bert  would  be  worth  the  writing  which  did  not 
prove  beyond  all  doubt  the  fact  of  her  marriage 
with  George,  Prince  of  Wales.  I  felt  that  the 
marriage  could  never  be  proved  without  reference 
to  the  papers  which  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  placed 
at  Coutts's  Bank  in  1833  f°r  tnat  express  purpose. 
These  papers  were  still  in  existence,  and,  acting 
with  the  approval  of  the  representatives  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert's  family  and  friends,  I  made  an  appli- 
cation to  His  Majesty  to  see  them,  at  the  same 
time  submitting  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the 
case.  His  Majesty  was  graciously  pleased  to  grant 
my  request,  and  I  have  been  allowed  to  inspect 
the  papers,  and  to  publish  in  this  book  such  of 
them,  or  such  extracts  from  them,  as  seemed 
necessary  for  my  purpose. 

Without  these  documents  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  vindicate  completely  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
character.  To  His  Majesty's  generous  permission 
is  therefore  due  the  fact  that  the  honour  and 
virtue  of  this  much  misunderstood  woman  are  now 
established  beyond  doubt,  and  her  memory  cleared 


xii  PREFACE 

from  every  shadow  or  stain.  By  his  chivalrous 
action  in  this  matter,  His  Majesty  has  won,  in 
especial  degree,  the  loyal  gratitude  of  those  Roman 
Catholic  families  (and  they  are  many)  with  whom 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  allied  by  birth  or  by  marriage, 
and  in  a  wider  sense  the  gratitude  of  all  honourable 
men  and  women.  In  her  lifetime  a  great  wrong 
was  done  to  her ;  now,  nearly  seventy  years  after 
her  death,  that  wrong  has  been  set  right. 

I  have  called  this  book  "  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  and 
George  IV."  I  have  done  so  because  it  is  impos- 
sible to  write  the  life  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  without 
writing  also  of  him  with  whom  her  life,  for  nearly 
half  a  century,  was  interwoven.  The  book  is 
primarily  a  biography  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  ("  Maria 
Fitzherbert,  wife  of  George  IV.,"  as  the  "Dic- 
tionary of  National  Biography "  calls  her) ;  it  is 
not  a  biography  of  George  IV.,  except  so  far  as 
his  life,  directly  or  indirectly,  touches  hers.  But  it 
touches  hers  so  largely  that  I  have  felt  justified  in 
giving  it  the  more  comprehensive  title.  I  shall 
not  be  thought  to  belittle  the  work  of  many  ex- 
cellent writers,  when  I  say  that  a  dispassionate  life 
of  George  IV.,  based  upon  his  letters  and  papers 
(of  which  there  exist  a  good  many  unpublished), 
has  yet  to  be  written.  These  documents  alone 
would  reveal  the  true  man,  his  wayward  moods, 
his  abilities  which  were  considerable,  his  eccentri- 
cities which  were  many — all  there  is  to  praise  and 


PREFACE  xiii 

all  there  is  to  blame  in  this  prince,  perhaps  the  most 
abused  of  English  kings,  and,  like  many  another 
man,  often  abused  unjustly. 

I  have  now  only  to  express  my  indebtedness  to 
those  who  have  kindly  helped  me  with  this  book. 

My  humble  thanks  are  first  due  to  His  Majesty 
the  King  for  permitting  me  to  see,  and  to  quote 
from,  the  Fitzherbert  papers,  formerly  at  Messrs. 
Coutts's  Bank,  now  in  the  private  archives  of 
Windsor  Castle.  His  Majesty  has  also  graciously 
allowed  me  to  publish  certain  letters  of  the  Duke 
of  Kent,  the  Duke  of  York,  and  other  members 
of  the  royal  family  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  which 
will  be  found  in  this  book. 

I  have  next  to  express  my  gratitude  to  Sir 
Walter  Smythe,  Bart.,  the  present  head  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert's  family,  without  whose  sanction  this 
book  would  not  have  been  written.  I  have  also 
to  thank  Lady  Smythe  for  the  kind  assistance  she 
has  rendered  to  me. 

My  thanks  are  especially  due  to  Lady  Blanche 
Haygarth  and  Lady  Constance  Leslie,  the  sur- 
viving daughters  of  the  Hon.  Mrs.  George  Dawson 
Darner  (nde  Seymour),  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  adopted 
daughter.  These  ladies  have  given  me  the 
greatest  help  by  the  loan  of  letters  and  pictures, 
and  in  many  other  ways.  I  have  thanked  them 
in  detail  elsewhere,  but  I  should  like  to  express 
my  acknowledgments  here  as  well. 


xiv  PREFACE 

To  Viscount  Esher  I  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude 
for  the  invaluable  aid  he  rendered  me  with  regard 
to  certain  documents  quoted  in  this  book. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  Basil  Fitzherbert,  the 
present  head  of  the  Fitzherbert  family,  Mr.  Charles 
Weld-Blundell,  and  to  the  late  Mrs.  William  Lang- 
dale,  daughter-in-law  of  the  late  Hon.  Charles 
Langdale,  cousin  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  author 
of  her  "  Memoir."  Messrs.  Coutts  also  I  thank 
for  their  courtesy. 

I  also  wish  to  convey  my  grateful  thanks  to  the 
following,  who,  in  divers  ways,  specified  elsewhere, 
have  helped  to  make  this  book  more  complete, 
either  by  the  loan  of  letters,  pictures,  or  in  other 
ways : — 

His  Grace  the  Duke  of  Rutland,  K.G. ;  The 
Marquess  of  Zetland ;  The  Earl  of  Albemarle ; 
The  Earl  Manvers ;  The  Dowager  Countess 
Manvers ;  The  Countess  of  Munster ;  The  Earl 
of  Munster ;  Viscountess  Ebrington ;  Viscount 
Halifax ;  The  Lady  Horatia  Erskine ;  The  Lady 
Catherine  Milnes  Gaskell ;  The  Lady  Dorothea 
Rycroft;  The  Hon.  C.  R.  Spencer,  M.P. ;  The 
Hon.  Gerald  Ponsonby ;  The  Hon.  Frederick 
Wallop;  Major  General  Sir  Arthur  Ellis,  K.C.V.O. ; 
Colonel  Kenyon-Slaney,  M.P.  ;  The  Rev.  Canon 
Johnson,  V.G.  (of  St.  John  the  Baptist's  Church, 
Brighton,  where  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  is  buried) ;  Dr. 
Chepmell ;  The  Rev.  A.  C.  Lowth ;  The  Rev. 


PREFACE  xv 

M.  Gavin,  S.J. ;  Miss  Mary  Arthur ;  Mr.  J.  G. 
Bishop  (the  historian  of  the  Brighton  Pavilion) ; 
Mrs.  Francis  Blundell ;  Mr.  W.  B.  Boulton  ;  Miss 
Selina  Bridgeman ;  Mr.  Joseph  W.  Brooks ;  Miss 
Dundas ;  Mr.  S.  M.  Ellis ;  Miss  Gurwood ;  Mr. 
John  Haines ;  Mr.  John  Harrington  ;  Miss  Lang ; 
Mr.  William  Saunders ;  Mr.  Arthur  G.  Sander- 
son ;  Miss  Thornhill ;  Miss  Thorold ;  and  Mr. 
Towner. 


VOL.   I. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  BIRTH   AND  PARENTAGE  i 

II.  LULWORTH   AND   SWYNNERTON       .         .13 

III.  PRINCE   CHARMING 26 

IV.  FLIGHT 47 

V.  SURRENDER     .         .         .        .     '    .        .         ,72 

VI.  THE   MARRIAGE     .         .        .         .         .         .96 

VII.  THE  VALIDITY  OF   THE   MARRIAGE       .     106 

VIII.  PERILOUS   HONOURS 132 

IX.  CARLTON   HOUSE   AND   BRIGHTON         .     153 

X.  DENIAL   OF  THE   MARRIAGE     .         .         .173 

XI.  SHERIDAN'S  APOLOGY 198 

XII.  A   QUEEN   OF   HEARTS         .         .         .         .217 

XIII.  THE  STRUGGLE   FOR   THE   REGENCY    .     233 

XIV.  FAMILY   QUARRELS 261 

XV.  SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW   .         .        .         .282 

XVI.    THE   FIRST   SEPARATION     .         .         .         .304 
XVII.   THE    PRINCE'S  WILL 331 


xvii 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


MRS.  FITZHERBERT Frontispiece 

(From  the  painting  by  THOMAS  GAINSBOROUGH, 
by  permission  of  A.  G.  SANDERSON,  Esq.) 

WALTER  SMYTHE,  ESQ.  (Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
father),  in  the  uniform  of  an  officer  in 
the  Austrian  Army.  ....  To  face  page  4 

(From  a  Painting  at  Acton  Burnell,  by  permission 
(/Sir  WALTER  SMYTHE,  Bart.) 

TONG  CASTLE,  SHROPSHIRE,  stated  to  be  Mrs. 

Fitzherbert's  birthplace     ....  „  6 

(From  a  Photo  by  Miss  SELINA  BRIDGEMAN) 

HATTON   HILL  FARM,  SHIFNAL,  SHROPSHIRE 
(alleged  to  have  been  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
birthplace)        ......  „  10 

(From  a  Photo  by  Miss  SELINA  BRIDGEMAN) 

ACTON  BURNELL  PARK,  SHROPSHIRE,  the  seat 
of  Sir  Walter  Smythe,  Bart.  (Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert's ancestral  home)  ...  „  14 

MRS.  WELD,  afterwards  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  „  18 

(From  a  Miniature  by  GEORGE  COSWAY,  R.A., 
by  permission  of  A.  G.  SANDERSON,  ESQ.) 

MARBLE  HILL  FROM  THE  RIVER  (where  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  was  living  when  she  first  met 
the  Prince  of  Wales)  „  24 

KEW  PALACE,  where  George,  Prince  of  Wales, 

was  born .......  „  30 

CARLTON  HOUSE,  facing  Pall  Mall  „  30 


XIX 


xx  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

GEORGE,  PRINCE  OF  WALES  ....  To  face  page    40 

(From  the  Painting  by  THOMAS  GAINSBOROUGH 
at  Aske,  by  permission  of  the  MARQUESS  OF 
ZETLAND) 

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE,    whither    Mrs.    Fitzberbert 

fled  in  1784 „  54 

GEORGE,  PRINCE  OF  WALES,  AS  "FLORIZEL"          „  72 

(After  the  Painting  by  GEORGE  COSWAV,  R.A.) 

MRS.  FlTZHERBERT „  88 

(After  the  Painting  by  GEORGE  COSWAY,  R.A.) 

GEORGE,  PRINCE  OF  WALES,  AND  MRS.  FITZ- 

HERBERT          ......  „  1OO 

(After  Miniatures  by  GEORGE  COSWAY,  R.A., 
now  in  possession  of  the  EARL  OF  PORTAR- 
LINGTON.  From  a  Photograph  by  Miss  HICKS- 
BEACH) 

THE  DUCHESS  OF  GLOUCESTER  (nle  Walpole)          „  108 

THE  DUCHESS  OF  CUMBERLAND  (nee  Luttrell)          ,,  120 

(After  the  Painting  by  GEORGE  COSWAY,  R.A.) 

MRS.  FlTZHERBERT  .....  „  142 

(From  the  Painting  by  JOHN  RUSSELL,  R.A., 
at  Swynnerton.  By  permission  of  BASIL  FlTZ- 
HERBERT, ESQ.) 

THE  PAVILION,  BRIGHTON,  IN  1778       .         .          „  168 

(From  an  old  Print) 

CHARLES  JAMES  Fox „  188 

RICHARD  BRINSLEY  SHERIDAN       ...          „  204 

(After  the  Painting  by  Sir  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS) 

MARTHA  GUNN,  the  Brighton  Bathing-woman  „  218 

WELTJE,  the  Prince's  Cook  and  Major-domo   .  „  218 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS  xxi 

FREDERICK,  DUKE  OF  YORK  AND  BISHOP  OF 

OSNABRUCK      ......   To  face  page  226 

MRS.  FlTZHERBERT „  248 

(After  an  unfinished  Painting  by  Sir  JOSHUA 
REYNOLDS,  by  permission  of  Lady  BLANCHE 
HAYGARTH) 

GEORGE  III „  262 

QUEEN  CHARLOTTE         .....          „  262 

WATCH    GIVEN    TO    MRS.    FITZHERBERT    BY 
THE  PRINCE  OF  WALES  (blue  enamel  set 
with  pearls)      ......  „  284 

(By  permission  of  Mr.  JOHN  HAINES) 

THE  DUKE  OF  SUSSEX „  298 

THE  PRINCESS  ELIZABETH,  daughter  of  George 

III.,  Landgravine  of  Hesse-Homburg     .  „  298 

THE  PRINCESS  CAROLINE  OF  BRUNSWICK       .          ,,  322 

(From  a  Picture  in  the  Palace  at  Brunswick} 

MRS.  FITZHERBERT „  340 

(From  a  Painting  by  GEORGE  COSWAY,  R.A., 
by  permission  of  Lady  BLANCHE  HAYGARTH) 


CORRIGENDA 

Vol.  I.,  p.  88,  footnote  2,  for  "Guildford"  read  "  Guilford." 
Vol.  I.,  p.  89,  footnote  \tfor  "Guildford"  read  "Guilford." 
Vol.   I.,  Preface,  p.  xiv,  and  Vol.    II.,   p.    222,  footnote,   &c.,  for 
"Ebrington"    read   "  Fortescue."     (Since   these  pages   passed 
through  the  press  Viscountess  Ebrington,  by  Lord  Ebrington's 
succession  to  the  earldom,  has  become  the  Countess  Fortescue.) 


Mrs.  Fitzherbert  and  George  IV. 


MRS.     FITZHERBERT     AND 
GEORGE    IV 

CHAPTER    I 

BIRTH  AND   PARENTAGE 

(1756—1775) 

MARIA  FITZHERBERT  was  born  on  July  26,  1756, 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  George  II.  She 
was  the  eldest  child  of  Walter  Smythe,  second 
son  of  Sir  John  Smythe,  Baronet,  of  Eshe  Hall, 
Durham,  and  of  Acton  Burnell  Park,  Shropshire, 
by  his  marriage  with  Mary,  the  daughter  of 
John  Errington  of  Red  Rice,  Andover,  Hamp- 
shire. 

The  Smythes  are  an  old  Roman  Catholic  family, 
originally  hailing  from  the  north  of  England. 
Sir  Edward  Smythe,  the  first  baronet,  owed  his 
baronetcy  to  Charles  II.,  who  conferred  it  upon  him 
after  the  Restoration  in  recognition  of  the  services 
he  had  rendered  to  the  royal  cause  during  the  great 
rebellion.  The  civil  war  had  seriously  impoverished 
the  family  fortunes,  but  Sir  Edward  Smythe  re- 
paired them  by  marrying  Mary,  daughter  and  co- 
heiress of  Sir  Richard  Lee,  Baronet,  of  Langley  and 

VOL.    I.  A 


2  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Acton  Burnell.  By  this  alliance  the  Shropshire 
estates  came  into  possession  of  the  Smythes,  and 
Acton  Burnell  became,  and  has  remained  until  this 
day,  the  principal  seat  of  the  family.  The  mansion 
is  a  handsome  building  of  white  stone,  surrounded 
by  a  finely  timbered  deer  park,  and  commanding  a 
view  of  the  distant  Wrekin.  Acton  Burnell  has 
historical  associations.  In  the  park  are  the  ruins  of 
an  ancient  castle,  and  near  it  are  the  remains  of  an 
immense  tithe-barn.  Here  Edward  I.  held  his 
parliament  in  1283,  when  the  celebrated  statute  of 
Acton  Burnell  was  passed  ;  the  nobles  assembled  in 
the  castle,  and  the  Commons  sat  in  the  barn. 
In  the  old  parish  church  hard  by  are  many 
monuments  of  the  Smythe  family.  There  is  a 
Roman  Catholic  chapel  in  the  mansion  originally 
built  for  a  company  of  Benedictine  monks  who 
fled  from  France  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution, 
and  were  sheltered  at  Acton  Burnell.  One  of 
the  most  interesting  legends  of  Acton  Burnell  is 
that  here  was  laid  the  scene  of  the  introductory 
chapter  of  "  John  Inglesant."  The  place  is  steeped 
in  the  traditions  of  those  who  have  held  fast  to 
the  old  faith. 

Belonging  to  the  great  cousinhood  of  the  old 
Roman  Catholic  families  in  England,  the  Smythes 
have  allied  themselves  before  and  since  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert's  day  with  many  illustrious  houses  of  the 
same  religion,  such  as  the  Arundells  of  Wardour, 
the  Stourtons,  the  Staffords,  the  Stonors,  the  Jer- 
ninghams,  the  Cliffords,  the  Welds,  the  Blounts, 
the  Fitzherberts,  the  Erringtons,  the  Herberts, 


BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE  3 

and  many  others  too  numerous  to  be  mentioned 
here.  The  Smythes  have  always  been  distin- 
guished for  their  fine  sense  of  patriotism  and 
loyalty.  The  family  motto  is  Regi  semper  fidelis, 
and  the  beautiful  daughter  of  their  house,  whose 
story  will  be  told  in  this  book,  certainly  acted 
upon  it.  None  was  more  faithful  to  her  king 
than  she ;  none  suffered  more  for  that  fidelity. 

Mr.  Walter  S  my  the,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  father, 
was  a  younger  son,  and  received  only  a  younger 
son's  portion  of  the  family  fortune.  It  was  difficult 
for  him  to  supplement  it,  for,  in  consequence  of  the 
penal  laws  then  existing  against  Roman  Catholics, 
every  career,  at  that  time  considered  suitable  for 
a  youth  of  his  birth  and  breeding,  was  closed  to 
him.  His  desire  was  to  serve  his  country  in  the 
profession  of  arms,  but  he  was  ineligible  for  either 
the  army  or  the  navy.  He  therefore  followed  the 
example  of  many  other  young  Englishmen,  sons  of 
Roman  Catholic  nobility  and  gentry,  and  accepted 
a  commission  in  the  Austrian  army.  There  is  a 
picture  of  him  at  Acton  Burnell  in  an  Austrian 
uniform  of  green  and  scarlet,  a  handsome,  soldierly- 
looking  man,  with  flashing  eyes  and  the  aquiline 
nose  characteristic  of  his  race. 

Walter  Smythe  entered  the  service  of  the  Em- 
peror of  Austria  shortly  before  the  Jacobite  rising 
of  1745.  It  was  perhaps  well  for  him  that  he  was 
out  of  England  at  that  time,  for  the  Smythes, 
like  all  Roman  Catholics,  harassed  by  unjust  laws, 
sympathised  with  the  cause  of  the  Stuarts.  Few 
English  Roman  Catholics  were  directly  concerned 


4  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

in  the  rising,  but  when  Charles  Edward  came 
south  of  the  Border  many  of  the  younger  Catholic 
nobility  and  gentry  were  ready  to  flock  to  his 
standard.  Some  did  so  and  were  involved  in  his 
ruin. 

Walter  Smythe  did  not  come  to  back  England 
until  some  years  after  the  battle  of  Culloden  had 
extinguished  the  hopes  of  the  Stuarts.  By  then 
the  great  bulk  of  the  English  Roman  Catholics  had 
come  to  acquiesce  hopelessly  in  the  establishment  of 
the  Hanoverian  dynasty,  though  for  some  the  White 
Rose  still  retained  its  fragrance.  Shortly  after 
Walter  Smythe's  return  he  married,  in  1755,  Mary, 
daughter  of  Mr.  John  Errington,  a  cadet  of  the 
ancient  Northumberland  family  of  that  name,  with 
whom  the  Smythes  of  county  Durham  were  re- 
motely connected.  Mary  Errington  had  great 
beauty,  and  a  moderate  fortune — in  those  days  a 
not  inconsiderable  dower.  They  were  married 
(according  to  tradition,  for  there  exists  no  record  of 
the  marriage)  at  Acton  Burnell,  where  Walter's 
elder  brother,  Sir  Edward  Smythe,  was  then  the 
reigning  baronet.  For  the  first  few  months  of  their 
married  life  they  appear  to  have  resided  at  Acton 
Burnell,  and  then  they  moved  to  Tong  Castle,  in 
the  same  county.  Tong,  an  ancient  castle  dating 
back  in  legend  to  Saxon  times,  had  passed  into 
the  possession  of  the  last  Duke  of  Kingston,  who 
seldom  resided  there,  and  was  then  wishing  to 
sell  it.  The  Duke  probably  lent  Tong  to  Walter 
Smythe  for  a  time ;  it  is  possible  that  he  appointed 
him,  as  a  neighbour,  to  look  after  the  management 


WALTER    SMYTHE,    ESQ. 

MRS.  FITZHERBERT'S  FATHER 

In  the  Uniform  of  an  Officer  in  the  Austrian  Army 

(From  a  Painting  at  Acton  Burnell,  by  permission  of  Sir  WALTER  SMYTHE,  Bart.) 


BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE  5 

of  the  estate  ;  it  is  certain  that  Smythe  and  his  wife 
were  residing  at  the  castle  in  1756.  According  to 
one  authority,  and  agreeably  also  to  family  tradition, 
it  was  here  that  their  eldest  child,  who  in  after 
years  became  celebrated  as  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  was 
born,  on  July  26,  1756.  It  is  impossible,  however, 
to  speak  with  certainty  on  this  point ;  for  there 
exists  no  public  register  of  her  birth  owing  to  the 
fact  that  she  was  the  child  of  Roman  Catholic 
parents,  and  born  previous  to  any  measure  of  relief. 
Family  registers  were  often  kept  (in  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert's  case  even  they  were  wanting),  and  wealthy 
parents  used  to  have  medals  struck  in  commemo- 
ration of  the  birth  of  their  children.  Neither 
does  there  exist  any  record  of  her  baptism.  The 
priests  in  charge  of  the  chief  Roman  Catholic 
missions  had  private  registers,  but  these  were  not 
kept  in  the  chapels.1  According  to  the  genealogical 
chart  of  the  Smythe  family,  the  child  was  christened 
Mary  Anne,  and  she  is  thus  denominated  in  the 
family  tree  at  Acton  Burnell,  but  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
signed  herself  "  Maria,"  and  under  that  name  she 
was  always  known. 

The  only  written  authority  in  support  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  having  been  born  at  Tong  is  to  be 
found  in  a  book  on  the  castle2  wherein  the  author 
says : — 

1  For  instance,  at  the  beginning  of  the  baptismal  register  kept  at 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  the  Holy  Apostles,  Norwich,  there  is 
written  on  the  fly-leaf  as  follows  :  "  A  Register  of  Baptisms  copied 
from  Mr.  Angler's,  beginning  from  September   1775,  no  one  being 
kept  before  by  reason  of  the  penal  laws." 

2  "A  History  of  Tong  and  Boscobel,"  by  George  Griffiths,  1894. 


6  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

"  Mr.  H.  F.  Vaughan  writes  to  me  (November 
17,  1884):  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  the  wife  of  George 
IV.,  was  born  in  the  '  Red  Room'  at  Tong  Castle, 
having  arrived  somewhat  unexpectedly  during  a 
visit  of  her  parents  at  Tong,  as  I  was  informed  by 
the  late  Madame  Durant,  with  whose  family  my 
own  was  intimate."  This  Madame  Durant,  n£e 
Lafeve,  was  the  daughter  -  in  -  law  of  the  George 
Durant  who  purchased  Tong  Castle  from  the  Duke 
of  Kingston  in  1762,*  so  that  the  testimony  is  fairly 
direct.  It  would  be  in  the  fitness  of  things  also 
if  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  were  born  at  Tong,  for  many 
famous  women  have  been  connected  with  the 
ancient  castle,  but  none,  it  may  be  safely  said, 
more  celebrated  than  she.  Tong  is  associated 
with  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu,  whose  father, 
Evelyn,  Duke  of  Kingston,  owned  it ;  with  Venetia, 
Lady  Digby,  whose  beauty  formed  the  theme  of 
Ben  Jonson's  "  Eupheme,"  and  with  the  witty 
and  scandalous  Elizabeth  Chudleigh,  Duchess  of 
Kingston. 

There  exists,  however,  a  local  tradition  to  the 
effect  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  not  born  at  Tong 
Castle,  but  at  a  farmhouse  in  the  neighbouring 
village  of  Shifnal.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Smythe,  so  the 
legend  runs,  were  residing  at  Tong  Castle  in  1756, 
but  as  the  time  drew  near  for  the  lady's  first  con- 
finement, her  husband  determined  to  take  her  to 

1  Mr.  George  Durant  "improved"  the  castle  built  by  Sir  Henry 
Vernon  in  1500  on  the  site  of  an  older  one,  by  re-facing  it  with  a 
mixed  Moorish  and  Gothic  exterior.  The  ownership  of  the  Durants 
lasted  nearly  a  century.  In  1855  Tong  Castle  was  sold  to  the  Earl  of 
Bradford. 


w 

Hi 

h 
•x 

«! 
o 

o 
o 

H 


BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE  7 

London  for  the  event.  They  appear  to  have  delayed 
their  departure  too  long.  They  started  from  Tong 
one  fine  morning  in  July,  on  their  journey  to  London, 
and  were  driving  in  the  family  coach  along  the  old 
posting  road,  when  Mrs.  Smythe  was  suddenly 
taken  ill.  As  it  was  impossible  to  proceed  on  their 
journey,  they  took  refuge  in  a  farmhouse  near  by. 
In  this  modest  dwelling,  a  few  hours  later,  on  July 
26,  1756,  Maria  Fitzherbert  was  born.1  It  is  an 
old  red  brick  house,  known  as  Hatton  Hill  Farm, 
in  the  parish  of  Shifnal,  and  is  still  standing.  It 
appears  to  have  been  re-faced  and  to  have  had  new 
windows  put  in,  but  otherwise  it  looks  much  the 
same  as  it  might  have  done  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago. 

Shortly  after  the  birth  of  their  eldest  child,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Smythe  left  Shropshire  and  bought  an 
estate  at  Brambridge,  near  Winchester,  which  be- 
came their  permanent  home.  Their  reason  for 
settling  in  Hampshire  was  doubtless  because  Mr. 
Errington,  Mrs.  Smythe's  brother,  lived  not  far  off, 
at  Red  Rice,  in  the  same  county.  The  house  at 
Brambridge  was  a  comfortable,  roomy  mansion 
without  any  pretension,  the  sort  of  house  that  a 
country  squire  of  moderate  means  might  occupy.  It 
dated  from  Charles  II.'s  reign,  and  was  approached 
by  a  double  avenue  of  limes.2  At  Brambridge  in 

1  I  am  indebted  for  this  anecdote  to  Colonel  Kenyon  Slaney,  M.P., 
of  Hatton  Grange,  Shifnal,  Shropshire.     He  was  told  it  by  his  great- 
aunt  Mrs.  Holmes,  who  was  a  Miss  Harriet  Slaney,  and  who  died  in 
1893  at  the  age  of  ninety. 

2  A  fire  in  1872  burnt  the  old  house  to  the  ground.     It  has  since 
been  rebuilt :  the  avenue  of  limes  still  stands. 


8 


MRS.   FITZHERBERT 


the  succeeding  years  Mrs.  Smythe  gave  birth  to 
her  other  children,  four  sons  and  a  daughter,1 
and  some  of  their  descendants  lived  there  until 
a  comparatively  recent  date.  The  Smythes 
were  firmly  attached  to  their  religion,  and  one 
of  their  first  acts  at  Brambridge  was  to  fit  up 
a  room  in  a  house  in  the  village  as  a  chapel, 
where  a  priest  occasionally  celebrated  Mass. 
Later,  when  the  Relief  Acts  made  it  possible, 
they  established  a  Roman  Catholic  mission  in  the 


1  SHORT  PEDIGREE  OF  MRS.  FITZHERBERT. 


Sir  JOHN  SMYTHE  =  CONSTANTIA,  dau.  of 


(3rdBart.), 
d.  1737. 

George  Blount, 
Esq.,  sister  of  Sir 
Edward  Blount 
(4th  Bart.). 

Sir  EDWARD  SMYTHE  (4th  Bart.),  £.1719,           WALTER,              CONSTANTIA,  m. 
m.  (i)  Maria,  dau.  of  Peter  Giffard,  Esq.            m.  Mary,                Marmaduke,  sth 
(a)  Mary,  dau.  of  Hugh,  4th  Lord                 dau.  of  John              Baron  Langdale, 
Clifford,  d.  1784,  having  issue,  from           Errington,  Esq.,             and  had  one 
whom  the  present  head  of  the  family,                  d.  1788.               daughter  Mary,  who 
Sir  (John)  Walter  Smythe,  Sth  Bart.  ,                                               married  the  i6th 
descends.                                                                       Lord  Stourton. 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

1 

Mary  Anne 

WALTER, 

JOHN, 

CHARLES 

HENRY 

FRANCES, 

or  Maria, 

i>-  1757- 

m.  widow  of 

(of  whom 

(of  whom 

m. 

b.  July  26, 

m.  1807, 

Captain 

nothing  is 

nothing  is 

Sir  Carnaby 

1756, 

Louisa,  dau. 

Strickland. 

known). 

known). 

Haggerston, 

m. 

of  Thomas 

He  had 

Sth  Bart.  , 

(i)  I77S. 

Boycott,  Esq., 

a  daughter 

d.  1836, 

Edward  Weld, 

d.  1822,  leaving 

Marianne 

having  issue 

Esq.  of 

two  daus. 

(afterwards 

one  daughter 

Lulworth. 

(i)  Louisa  Mary, 

adopted  by 

Mary,  who 

(2)  1778, 

•m. 

Mrs.  Fitz- 

married 

Thomas  Fitz- 

Sir  Frederick 

herbert),  who 

Sir  Thomas 

herbert,  Esq.  of 

Hervey 

married  the 

Stanley, 

Swynnerton. 

Bathurst,  Bart. 

Hon.  Edward 

9th  Bart. 

(3)  Dec.  15,  1785, 

(2)  Charlotte 

Stafford 

George,  Prince 

Georgiana 

Jerningham, 

of  Wales 

Harriett,  m. 

2nd  son  of 

(afterwards 

the  Hon. 

George 

George  IV.  ), 

George 

Wiliam  Lord 

d.  Mar.  29, 

Augustus 

Stafford. 

1837- 

Craven. 

BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE  9 

district,1  and  in  after  years  their  elder  daughter, 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  then  a  widow  in  affluent  circum- 
stances, endowed  it. 

There  is  very  little  to  record  of  Maria  Smythe's 
girlhood.  She  grew  up  under  the  ban  laid  upon 
her  religion.  The  Roman  Catholic  families  of  that 
day  lived  very  much  to  themselves ;  they  were 
regarded  with  dislike  and  suspicion  by  many  of 
their  neighbours,  even  those  of  education  and  equal 
birth,  and  were  largely  cut  off  from  social  intercourse. 
Deprived  of  their  civil  rights,  treated  as  aliens  and 
suspects  in  the  land  of  their  birth,  they  were  forced 
to  practise  their  religion  almost  by  stealth.  Their 
priests  in  England  lived  in  fear,  and  the  doors  of 
the  chapels  were  bolted  before  Mass  began  to  keep 
out  spies,  for  the  Act  of  William  and  Mary,  "  An 
Act  for  the  further  prevention  of  the  growth  of 
Popery,"  was  still  unrepealed.2  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances it  is  no  wonder  that  many  Roman 
Catholics  left  England,  while  those  that  remained 
and  held  fast  to  their  faith  became,  to  quote  the 
words  of  a  dispassionate  writer,  "  virtually  outlaws 
in  their  own  country,  doomed  to  a  life  of  secrecy 
and  retirement." 3  We  may  be  pardoned  for  dwell- 
ing on  this  state  of  affairs,  for  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
childhood  and  youth  were  passed  before  any  measure 
of  Roman  Catholic  relief  was  carried.  The  in- 

1  The  priest's  house  in  the  village  has  now  been  converted  into  a 
nurseryman's.     In  one  of  the  rooms  of  the  house  may  be  seen  traces 
of  the  chapel. 

2  So  late   as  1767  (eleven  years  after  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  birth)  a 
priest  was  convicted  and  condemned  under  its  provisions. 

3  "A  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  by  W.  E. 
Lecky. 


io  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

justice  of  the  penal  laws  made  a  deep  impression  on 
her,  and  so  far  from  weakening  her  in  her  religion 
(as  it  did  many)  only  confirmed  her  in  her  attach- 
ment to  it. 

In  accordance  with  the  custom  of  many  of  the 
English  Catholic  families  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
Maria  S  my  the  was  sent  to  Paris  to  be  educated  at 
the  English  Convent  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Antoine, 
kept  by  Conceptionist  nuns,  known  as  the  "  Blew 
Nuns."  For  half  a  century  this  convent  was  the 
best  and  most  select  school  for  the  daughters  of 
English  Roman  Catholics. 

One  anecdote  only  has  come  to  us  out  of  the 
obscurity  of  her  girlhood  in  Paris.  On  one  of  her 
holidays  she  was  taken  by  her  parents  to  Versailles, 
where  they  saw  Louis  XV.  dine  in  public.  (People 
were  admitted  by  ticket,  and  stood  behind  a 
barrier  to  watch  the  monarch  dine  alone  in  state.) 
During  the  repast  the  French  king  pulled  a 
chicken  to  pieces  with  his  fingers.  This  so 
amused  the  little  English  girl  that,  regardless  of  the 
rule  that  no  one  should  break  the  silence,  she  burst 
into  a  peal  of  laughter.  The  breach  of  etiquette 
might  have  led  to  her  summary  ejection,  but  Louis 
XV.  took  it  very  good-naturedly,  and  sent  the 
pretty  fair-haired  child  a  dish  of  sugar  plums  by 
one  of  his  attendant  nobles,  the  Duke  of  Soubise. 
In  after  years  when  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  an 
honoured  guest  at  the  French  court,  the  Duke,  then 
an  old  man,  reminded  her  of  the  incident,  and  told 
her  he  was  the  bearer  of  the  gift. 

In  relating  this  incident  in  her  old  age  to 
Lord  Stourton,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  said  "that 


BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE  n 

attentions  from  Royalty,  as  if  to  prognosticate 
her  future  destiny,  commenced  with  her  at  a  very 
early  age."  She  added  sadly  that  it  was  "  rather  a 
curious  coincidence  in  her  connection  with  Royalty 
that  the  last  dregs  of  bitterness  were  presented  to 
her  from  a  Royal  table  connected  with  the  French 
sovereign  Louis  XVIII."1 

When  her  education  with  the  "  Blew  Nuns"  was 
completed,  Maria  Smythe  returned  to  England. 
The  influence  of  her  education  in  Paris  was  very 
marked  in  her  after  life.  She  loved  France,  and 
often  visited  Paris,  where  she  had  many  friends  ;  she 
spoke  and  wrote  French  fluently,  and  there  was 
something  in  her  temperament — her  impulsiveness, 
her  vivacity  and  love  of  amusement — which  was 
more  akin  to  the  French  character  than  the 
English. 

The  next  few  years  of  Maria  Smythe's  life  were 
passed  in  her  father's  home  at  Brambridge,  broken 
only  by  visits  to  some  of  her  relatives.  No  girl 
was  brought  up  in  greater  ignorance  of  the  world, 
or  led  a  more  secluded  life,  yet,  before  long,  "  the 
beautiful  Miss  Smythe"  began  to  be  talked  about 
in  the  quiet  Catholic  world.  She  was  then  in 
the  first  blush  of  her  loveliness.  Her  abundant 
hair,  which  she  wore  naturally,  in  defiance  of  the 
fashion  of  the  day,  was  of  a  pale  gold,  her  eyes 
hazel-brown,  her  complexion  that  of  the  wild  rose 

1  "  Memoirs  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  with  an  account  of  her  marriage 
with  H.R.H.  the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterward  King  George  IV.,"  by  the 
Hon.  Charles  Langdale.  London,  1856. 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  referred  to  the  great  fete  at  Carlton  House  in  1811, 
given  by  the  Prince  Regent  to  the  exiled  Royal  Family  of  France, 
when  no  place  was  allotted  her  at  the  Royal  table. 


12  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

and  hawthorn,  her  features  exquisitely  chiselled,  her 
figure  full  of  grace.  Even  more  attractive  than 
her  beauty  was  her  sunny  disposition,  her  vivacity, 
her  natural  unaffected  manner,  which  arose  from 
absence  of  guile  and  kindness  of  heart,  and  an 
indefinable  charm  which  clung  to  her  through  life. 


CHAPTER   II 

LULWORTH   AND  SWYNNERTON 
('775— 1784) 

THE  beautiful  Miss  Smythe  was  not  long  left  with- 
out suitors.  In  her  eighteenth  year,  at  her  uncle's, 
Mr.  Errington's,  house,  Red  Rice,  near  Andover,  she 
met  Mr.  Edward  Weld  of  Lulworth  Castle,  Dorset- 
shire. Mr.  Weld  was  a  widower  of  forty-four  years 
of  age :  his  first  wife,  a  daughter  of  Lord  Petre, 
had  died  a  few  years  before,  leaving  him  without 
children.  He  straightway  fell  in  love  with  Miss 
Smythe,  and  made  her  an  offer  of  marriage.  The 
master  of  Lulworth,  head  of  one  of  the  most  ancient 
Roman  Catholic  families  of  England,  and  owner  of 
many  broad  acres,  was  a  great  match  for  Maria 
Smythe,  who  had  no  dower  but  her  beauty.  She 
accepted  him  without  demur,  or  rather  he  was 
accepted  for  her  by  her  parents,  for  in  those  days 
marriages  were  arranged  much  on  the  French 
system.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  her  duty 
and  inclination  did  not  go  together,  though  her 
husband  was  twenty-six  years  older  than  herself 
and  in  delicate  health.  They  were  married  early 
in  1775,  when  she  was  eighteen,  and  took  up  their 
residence  at  Lulworth  Castle. 

Very  little  comes  to  us  out  of  the  past  concerning 
Mrs.  Weld's  brief  reign  at  princely  Lulworth,  and 


i4  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

few  are  the  traditions  of  her  life  there.  In  one  of 
the  rooms  of  the  castle  there  is  a  curious  picture 
showing  Edward  Weld  and  his  two  wives  on  one 
canvas.  Mr.  Weld  had  been  painted  with  his  first 
wife,  Juliana,  and  after  his  second  marriage,  there 
being  room  on  the  left  side  of  the  picture,  he  caused 
his  second  wife,  Maria,  to  be  painted  in  the  vacant 
space.  There  he  stands  between  his  two  wives,  a 
doubtful  compliment,  one  would  think,  to  number 
two.  But  Mr.  Weld  was  fond  and  proud  of  his 
beautiful  second  wife ;  there  is  another  picture  of 
her  at  Lulworth  painted  immediately  after  her 
marriage,  probably  by  Gainsborough.  I  am  in- 
debted to  Mr.  Charles  Weld  Blundell  for  the 
following  account  of  it : — 

"  It  is  unfinished  as  to  her  marvellous  aureole  of 
hair,  which  she  persisted  in  wearing  au  naturel, 
when  all  wore  wigs  and  other  hideous  erections. 
She  is  p&tillante  d'esprit,  and  would  convince  the 
most  incredulous  of  her  early  beauty  and  originality. 
I  have  heard  it  said  by  my  great-uncle  Weld *  that, 
when  being  painted  for  this  portrait,  she  was  so 
indignant  the  first  sitting  at  the  artist's  outline  of 
her  fuzzy  head,  filled  in  with  grey  impaste,  that  she 
jumped  up  saying,  '  Why,  the  man  has  given  me  a 
grey  wig,'  and  bounced  out  of  the  room,  vowing  that 
nothing  would  induce  her  to  sit  any  more  to  him. 
There  is  no  trace  in  it  of  the  aquiline  nose  which 
she  developed  later." 

Miss  Mary  Frampton,  of  Moreton,  whose  parents 
lived  near  Lulworth,  writes  in  her  journal  of  Mrs. 
Weld  at  that  time:  "She  was  then  (1775)  very 

1  Mr.  Joseph  Weld  of  Lulworth,  who  died  1863. 


w 


M 

W      M 
v     u 


LUL WORTH  AND  SWYNNERTON       15 

beautiful.  She  dined  at  Moreton  on  the  day 
she  was  nineteen — perfectly  unaffected  and  un- 
assuming in  manner,  as  I  heard  from  my  mother 
at  that  time,  and  as  I  have  myself  since  seen." a 

Mrs.  Weld  was  not  long  at  Lulworth ;  she  lost 
her  husband  the  first  year  of  their  marriage. 
Mr.  Edward  Weld  died  in  1775  after  a  brief 
illness  without  having  made  special  provision 
for  his  widow.  Many  years  later  Mrs.  Weld 
(then  Mrs.  Fitzherbert)  told  her  adopted  daughter, 
Mrs.  Dawson  Darner,2  that  "she  had  always 
been  a  most  unlucky  woman,"  and  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  truth  of  her  saying,  she  referred  to  the 
circumstances  of  the  death  of  her*  first  husband. 
He  had  drafted  a  will,  she  said,  leaving  her 
everything  in  his  power.  He  read  it  over  to 
her  in  the  library  one  morning,  and  was  about 
to  sign  it  and  call  witnesses,  when  she  pre- 
vented him,  saying,  "  Oh,  do  that  later.  It  is  such 
a  lovely  day,  let  us  go  for  a  ride."  He  yielded 
to  her  persuasion.  During  the  ride  Mr.  Weld's 
horse  stumbled  and  fell,  bringing  his  rider  down 
with  him.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  the  acci- 
dent would  not  have  been  serious,  for  Mr.  Weld 
was  apparently  uninjured.  But  it  proved  such  a 
shock  to  his  enfeebled  constitution,  that  it  hastened 
his  death.  On  returning  home  he  took  to  his  bed, 
and  never  rallied.  He  died  a  few  weeks  later, 
leaving  his  will  unsigned.  As  there  were  no  chil- 
dren, he  was  succeeded  in  the  estates  by  his  only 

1  "The  Journal  of  Mary  Frampton,"  1885. 

3  Mary,  a  daughter  of  Lord  Hugh  and  Lady  Horatia  Seymour,  who 
married  the  Hon.  George  Lionel  Dawson  Darner,  second  son  of  the 
first  Earl  of  Portarlington. 


1 6  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

surviving  brother,  Mr.  Thomas  Weld,1  who  made 
provision  for  his  brother's  widow,  but  on  a  dif- 
ferent basis  to  the  bounteous  one  in  the  unsigned 
will.  Mr.  Thomas  Weld  was  not  at  Lul worth  at 
the  time  of  his  brother's  death,  and  as  means  of 
communication  were  slow,  the  young  widow  was 
left  in  the  house  for  some  days  absolutely  alone. 
But  she  had  kind  neighbours.  "  My  father  and 
mother,"  writes  Mary  Frampton,  "knowing  that 
Mrs.  Weld  was  so  young  and  without  any  friends 
with  her,  sent  to  offer  her  to  remove  to  Moreton,  or 
to  give  her  any  comfort  or  assistance  in  their  power. 
This  friendly  conduct  was  on  her  side  always  repaid 
with  great  civility  and  attention." 2 

Of  the  three  years  of  Mrs.  Weld's  widowhood, 
very  little  is  known.  She  left  Lulworth  almost 
immediately  after  her  husband's  funeral.  There 
is  a  tradition  at  Brambridge  that  she  at  one  time 
lived  in  a  cottage  in  the  adjacent  village  of  Golden 
Common.3  It  is  possible  that  she  went  there  in 

1  SHORT  PEDIGREE  OF  THE  WELD  FAMILY. 

Edward  Weld  (of  Lulworth),  b.  1731,  d.  1775. 
m,  (i)  1763,  Juliana,  dau.  of  Robert  Lord  Petre. 

(2)  1775,  MARY  ANNE,  dau.  of  Walter  Smythe,  Esq. 

Was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Thomas  Weld,  d.  1810. 

Who  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Thomas  (afterward  Cardinal)  Weld, 

d.  1837. 

Who  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Joseph  Weld,  d.  1863. 
Who  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Edward  Joseph  Weld,  d.  1877. 

Who  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Reginald  Joseph  Weld,  the  present 

head  of  the  family. 
2  Frampton,  op.  cit, 

*  Concerning  this  the  Rev.  P.  H.  Owen  (sometime  vicar  of  Golden 
Common)  writes,  1903  :  "The  cottage  still  exists.    It  is  one  of  the  old 


LULWORTH  AND  SWYNNERTON   17 

the  early  days  of  her  widowhood  to  be  near  her 
parents.  The  cottage  would  be  more  in  keeping 
with  her  means  at  that  period  of  her  life  than  at  any 
other,  for,  in  after  years,  she  was  too  affluent  to  need 
so  humble  a  residence.  We  find  her  also  in  London. 
Lady  Jerningham  mentions  having  met  her  there 
when  she  was  the  "  Widow  Weld."  x 

About  this  time  a  misfortune  befell  the  Smythe 
family  in  the  serious  illness  of  their  father,  Mr. 
Walter  Smythe,  who  was  seized  with  paralysis,  and 
remained  a  complete  invalid  until  his  death,  which 
took  place  some  years  later.2  It  was  a  misfortune 
in  more  ways  than  one,  for  his  four  sons,  handsome, 
high-spirited  lads,  were  growing  up  to  manhood, 
and  were  thus  deprived  of  a  father's  guidance  just 
when  it  was  most  needed.  As  these  youths  were 
Roman  Catholics,  they  were  subject  to  the  same  dis- 
abilities as  those  which  had  prevented  their  father 
from  making  a  career  for  himself ;  the  penal  laws 
excluded  them  from  the  bar,  from  the  army,  the 
navy,  and  from  every  place  of  trust  or  profit 
under  the  government.  One  of  them  eventually 
followed  his  father's  example  and  entered  the 
Austrian  army,  but  all  of  them,  during  the  most 
impressionable  years  of  their  lives,  were  allowed 
to  run  wild.  Mrs.  Weld  was  devoted  to  her 
brothers  and  did  all  she  could  to  help  them, 

commoner's  cottages  and  stands  in  a  hollow.  I  remember  seeing 
some  china  article  given  by  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  to  the  owner  of  the 
cottage.  The  late  Mrs.  Monro,  widow  of  a  former  vicar  of  Golden 
Common,  had  in  her  possession  a  shawl  belonging  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
which  she  (Mrs.  Monro)  had  received  from  the  occupant  of  the 
cottage  in  question. 

1  "The  Jerningham    Letters"   (1780-1843),    edited    by    Egerton 
Castle,  1890. 

2  He  died  January  14,  1788.     His  widow  survived  him  many  years. 
VOL.  I.  B 


1 8  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

but  at  this  time  she  was  not  able  to  do  much, 
and  when  she  had  the  power  it  was  too  late,  for 
the  years  of  idleness  had  done  their  work.  Their 
paternal  uncle,  Sir  Edward  Smythe,  did  little  for 
them,  and  it  was  to  Mr.  Henry  Errington,  their 
maternal  uncle,  that  they  looked  for  help  and  guid- 
ance. Mr.  Errington  was  a  wealthy  man,  and  he  gave 
both  with  ungrudging  hand.  When  Mr.  Smythe 
was  incapacitated  by  illness,  Mr.  Errington  came  to 
.be  regarded  by  all  his  sister's  children  (Mrs.  Weld 
included)  in  the  light  of  a  guardian.  He  was  gene- 
rous and  kind-hearted,  a  bon  viveur,  and  a  man  of 
tolerant  mind  whose  Catholicism  sat  lightly  on  him. 
But  he  was  not,  as  events  proved,  a  very  wise  one. 
The  young  widow  was  too  beautiful  and  attrac- 
tive to  remain  long  without  offers  of  marriage.  She 
refused  several  suitors,  but  in  1778,  three  years 
after  the  death  of  her  first  husband,  she  married 
Mr.  Thomas  Fitzherbert  of  Swynnerton  in  Stafford- 
shire and  of  Norbury  in  Derbyshire.  Her  second 
marriage  was  no  less  advantageous  in  a  worldly 
sense  than  her  first  had  been  ;  it  gave  her  the  same 
position  of  dignity  and  continued  her  amid  the  same 
gracious  surroundings  as  those  she  had  enjoyed  at 
Lulworth.  Like  the  Welds,  the  Fitzherberts  were 
Roman  Catholics ;  like  them,  they  were  an  ancient 
and  wealthy  family,  belonging  to  what  has  been 
termed  the  "  untitled  nobility  of  England."  The 
Welds  were  of  Saxon  origin,  the  Fitzherberts  de- 
scended from  a  Norman  knight  whose  name  appears 
on  the  roll  of  Battle  Abbey.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
second  marriage  was  a  happy  one.  There  was  not 
the  same  disparity  of  age  between  herself  and  her 


IT 


MRS.  WELD 
AFTERWARDS  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

(From  a  Miniature  by  GEORGE  COSWAY,  R.A. ,  bv permission  of 
A.  G.  SANDERSON,  Esq.) 


LULWORTH  AND  SWYNNERTON   19 

second  husband  as  there  had  been  in  the  case  of  her 
first  marriage — Mr.  Fitzherbert  was  only  ten  years 
her  senior.  But  the  second  union,  like  the  first,  was 
unblessed  with  children.  Mr.  Weld  had  been  some- 
thing of  a  recluse  ;  Mr.  Fitzherbert  was,  for  a  Roman 
Catholic  squire  of  those  days,  very  much  a  man  of 
the  world.  The  Fitzherberts  were  very  hospitable 
and  popular  and  entertained  largely  at  Swynnerton  ; 
their  guests  were  chiefly  of  their  own  faith,  though 
Mr.  Fitzherbert  lived  on  excellent  terms  with  his 
Anglican  neighbours.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  younger 
sister,  Frances,  stayed  at  Swynnerton,  and  while 
there  she  became  engaged  to,  and  married,  Sir 
Carnaby  Haggerston,  fifth  baronet  of  that  name, 
and  head  of  an  ancient  Northumberland  Catholic 
family.  Lady  Haggerston  was  almost  as  beautiful 
as  her  elder  sister,  but  she  lacked  her  social  gifts  and 
was  of  a  quieter  and  less  impulsive  temperament. 

The  Fitzherberts  also  came  to  London  every 
year.  Their  house  in  Park  Street,  Park  Lane,  was 
a  meeting-place  of  many  of  the  old  Roman  Catholic 
families,  and  Mr.  Fitzherbert  was  active  in  keeping 
alive  the  esprit  de  corps  among  them.  Yet  he  was 
one  of  the  most  liberal-minded  of  the  influential 
Roman  Catholic  laymen,  and  he  was  one  of  the 
first  to  show  openly  his  loyalty  to  the  established 
dynasty.  Though  the  rising  in  1745  was  still  in 
the  memory  of  many,  a  generation  had  grown  up 
since  the  battle  of  Culloden.  Charles  Edward  had 
sunk  lower  and  lower  in  the  estimation  of  his  ad- 
herents, and  was  drinking  himself  to  death  on  the 
continent.  The  House  of  Stuart  had  become  the 
shadow  of  a  shadow.  It  was  now  the  second  decade 


20  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

of  George  III.'s  reign,  and  Roman  Catholics  were 
taking  heart  at  the  kindness  shown  to  them  by  the 
King,  who,  though  a  staunch  upholder  of  the  national 
Church,  was  averse  from  the  persecution  of  his 
Roman  Catholic  subjects.  An  agitation,  in  which 
Mr.  Fitzherbert  was  interested,  was  begun,  for  repeal- 
ing the  more  obnoxious  laws  against  them,  and  it 
bore  fruit  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Relief  Act  of  1778, 
which  repealed  the  very  severe  Act  of  1699,  though 
it  still  left  them  under  many  disabilities.  The 
measure  of  relief  thus  granted  was  small,  and  the 
motive  which  prompted  the  government  to  pass  it 
was  probably  political  expediency  rather  than  a 
more  liberal  one,  but  this  concession  to  justice,  little 
though  it  was,  excited  the  bigotry  of  the  Presby- 
terians in  Scotland,  and  the  Protestant  Dissenters 
in  England  (the  Church  of  England  held  aloof), 
with  the  result  that  "  No-Popery  Riots "  broke 
out  in  different  parts  of  the  kingdom.  In 
1780  these  culminated  in  the  disgraceful  riots  in 
London  headed  by  the  half  crazy  Lord  George 
Gordon.  For  six  days  the  metropolis  was  virtually 
at  the  mercy  of  a  drunken  and  infuriated  mob. 
Roman  Catholic  chapels  were  pillaged  and  burned, 
several  mansions  were  wrecked,  the  gaols  of  New- 
gate and  Clerkenwell  were  broken  open  and  the 
prisoners  set  free,  and  Newgate  was  set  on  fire. 
Nearly  five  hundred  persons  were  killed  or  wounded. 
The  magistrates  seemed  paralysed,  and  had  it  not 
been  for  the  determination  of  the  King,  who  insisted 
on  the  military  being  called  out,  the  whole  of 
London  might  have  been  burned  to  the  ground. 
The  houses  of  the  leading  Roman  Catholic  laity  were 


LULWORTH  AND  SWYNNERTON      21 

fortified  as  though  for  a  siege.  Many  of  them  worked 
hard  to  quell  the  tumult,  and  to  help  their  priests  to 
escape  from  the  violence  of  the  mob.  No  one  was 
more  active  than  Mr.  Fitzherbert,  who  laboured  un- 
tiringly, with  results  that  proved  fatal  to  himself. 
When  order  was  at  last  restored  he  returned  home 
much  heated  by  his  exertions.  He  bathed,  and  this 
his  wife  afterwards  said  was  the  beginning  of  the 
illness  which  caused  his  death.  It  brought  on  a 
violent  chill  which  settled  on  his  lungs,  and  defied 
all  remedies.  His  wife  nursed  him  with  unremitting 
care,  and  when  the  winter  came  on  she  took  him  to 
the  south  of  France,  in  the  hope  that  the  warmth 
and  sunshine  would  help  him  to  recover  his  strength. 
But  all  efforts  were  in  vain.  Mr.  Fitzherbert  died 
at  Nice  on  May  7,  1781,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty- 
seven,  nearly  a  year  after  the  beginning  of  his  illness. 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  found  herself  left  a  widow  for  the 
second  time  at  the  age  of  twenty-five.  Thus  she 
was  early  made  familiar  with  sorrow. 

Mr.  Fitzherbert  was  succeeded  in  the  family 
estates  of  Norbury  and  Swynnerton  by  his  brother 
Mr.  Basil  Fitzherbert,  from  whom  the  present  head 
of  the  family  descends.1  Mr.  Thomas  Fitzherbert 

1  A  SHORT  PEDIGREE  OF  THE  FITZHERBERT  FAMILY. 

Thomas  Fitzherbert  (of  Norbury  and  Swynnerton),  b.  1746,  d.  1781. 

m.  1778,  MARY  ANNE,  dau.  of  Walter  Smythe,  Esq.,  and  widow  of 

Edward  Weld,  Esq. 

And  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Basil  Fitzherbert,  d.  1797. 
Who  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Thomas  Fitzherbert,  d.  1857. 
Who  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Jolin  Fitzherbert,  d.  1863. 

Who  was  succeeded  by  his  nephew  Basil  Thomas  Fitzherbert,  Esq., 
now  of  Swynnerton,  the  present  head  of  the  family,  b.  1836,  who 


22  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

had  left  ample  provision  for  his  widow.  He  left 
her  a  jointure  of  nearly  ^2000  a  year,  the  re- 
mainder of  the  lease  of  his  town  house  in  Park 
Street  with  all  the  furniture  and  appointments 
therein;  his  horses  and  carriages,  "also  the  ponies 
or  Galloways  she  usually  drives  in  the  phaeton  " — 
in  short,  everything  in  his  power.1 

The  two  first  years  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  widow- 
hood were  passed  in  retirement.  She  remained 
at  Nice  some  time  after  her  husband's  death, 
and  erected  a  monument  to  his  memory  in  one 
of  the  churches  there.  Then  she  went  to  Paris, 
where  she  had  many  friends.  In  Paris,  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  who  was  one  of  the  most  charitable  of 
women,  interested  herself  in  an  institution  for  the 
benefit  of  poor  English  Roman  Catholic  ladies  who 
had  taken  refuge  in  France.  This  benevolence  was 
afterwards  distorted  by  her  enemies  into  a  charge 
that  when  she  was  in  Paris  she  was  engaged  with 
certain  French  Jesuits  in  intriguing  for  "  the  promo- 
tion of  popery  in  England."  This  falsehood  may  be 
taken  as  a  measure  of  many  of  the  untruths  after- 
wards propagated  concerning  her. 

In  1782  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  returned  to  England. 
We  find  a  trace  of  her  this  year  at  Brighton.2  Soon 
after  her  return  she  took  on  lease  the  beautiful  villa 

married  Emily  Charlotte,  dau.  of  the  Hon.  Edward  Stafford  Jerning- 
ham  and  Mary  Anne  his  wife  (niece  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert). 

1  Mr.  Fitzherbert's  will  was  proved  July  4,  1781,  by  Henry 
Errington  (Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  uncle).  From  it  these  particulars  are 
taken. 

J  In  the  supplementary  Museum  of  the  Royal  Pavilion  at  Brighton 
there  are  four  views  of  the  Steine  by  a  local  artist,  dated  August  i, 
1782,  and  dedicated  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  This  goes  to  show  that  she 
was  well  known  at  Brighton  at  that  time. 


LULWORTH  AND  SWYNNERTON   23 

of  Marble  Hill  at  Richmond,  or,  more  properly, 
Twickenham.  The  house  had  been  built  by 
Mrs.  Howard,  afterwards  Countess  of  Suffolk, 
the  favourite  of  George  II.  :  it  was  the  famous  villa 
of  which  Burlington  and  Pembroke  designed  the 
front,  Bathurst  and  Pope  planned  the  gardens, 
and  Swift  and  Gay  arranged  the  household.  On 
Lady  Suffolk's  death  it  passed  to  her  brother, 
and  when  he  died  it  reverted  to  Miss  Hotham, 
daughter  of  Sir  Charles  Hotham,  who  let  it  to 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  We  may  quote  a  description 
of  the  place  as  it  was  then  from  an  old  guide- 
book : — 

"  The  house  is  most  properly  stiled  Marble  Hill  ; 
for  such  it  resembles,  in  a  fine  green  laun,  open  to 
the  river,  and  adorned  on  each  side  by  a  beautiful 
grove  of  chesnut  trees :  the  house  is  as  white  as 
snow,  a  small  building  without  wings,  but  of  a  most 
pleasing  appearance  ;  the  garden  is  very  pleasant  ; 
there  is  an  alley  of  flowering  shrubs,  which  leads 
with  an  easy  descent  to  a  very  fine  grotto  ;  there  is 
also  a  smaller  grotto,  whence  there  is  a  fine  view  of 
Richmond  Hill."1 

Here  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  lived  quietly  for  a  time, 
seeing  only  members  of  her  family,  and  intimate 
friends.  We  find  her  in  1783  a  young  and  lovely 
widow,  and  endowed  with  ample  fortune,  for  ^2000 
a  year  in  those  days  represented  much  more  than  it 
does  now.  Before  long  the  rumour  of  her  beauty 
spread  abroad,  her  friends  urged  her  to  quit  her 
seclusion,  and  at  last  she  yielded  to  their  advice 

1  "A  Short  Account  of  the  Principal  Seats  and  Gardens  in  and 
about  Twickenham."     Circa  1770. 


24  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

and  returned  to  London,  to  the  house  her  hus- 
band had  left  her  in  Park  Street.  We  find  her 
soon  the  subject  of  newspaper  paragraphs.  The 
first  mention  of  her  is  in  the  Morning  Herald, 
March  20,  1784:  "Mrs.  Fitzherbert  is  arrived  in 
London  for  the  season." 

In  London  she  threw  open  her  house  to  her 
friends  and  went  into  society.  The  many  Roman 
Catholic  families  to  whom  she  was  allied,  by  birth 
or  marriage,  came  to  see  her,  and  certain  leaders 
of  society  called  upon  her,  and  made  her  welcome 
to  their  houses.  Prominent  among  these  was  Lady 
Sefton,1  one  of  the  great  ladies  who  for  many 
years  gave  the  ton  to  society  in  London.  Lord 
and  Lady  Sefton,  though  not  Roman  Catholics, 
were  connected  with  the  Smythe  family  through 
the  Erringtons.  Lady  Sefton  showed  the  warmest 
sympathy  and  friendship  towards  her  young  kins- 
woman, and  it  was  through  her  that  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert became  acquainted  with  other  great  ladies 
not  of  her  religion,  and  on  both  sides  of  politics, 
such  as  the  beautiful  Georgiana,  Duchess  of  Devon- 
shire, the  Duchess  of  Gordon,  Lady  Salisbury,  Lady 
Cowper  and  others.  This  year  marked  her  first 
appearance  in  what  may  be  called  general  society, 
for  during  Mr.  Fitzherbert's  lifetime,  she  had  moved 
almost  exclusively  among  the  Roman  Catholic 
cousinhood.  She  was  an  immediate  success.  We 
find  the  following  paragraph  in  the  Morning  Herald, 
July  27,  1784:— 

"A  new  Constellation  has  lately  made  an  appear- 

1  Isabella,  daughter  of  the  second  Earl  of  Harrington,  and  wife  of 
the  ninth  Viscount  and  first  Earl  of  Sefton. 


LULWORTH  AND  SWYNNERTON   25 

ance  in  the  fashionable  hemisphere,  that  engages  the 
attention  of  those  whose  hearts  are  susceptible  to 
the  power  of  beauty.  The  Widow  of  the  late  Mr. 
F — h — t  has  in  her  train  half  our  young  Nobility : 
as  the  Lady  has  not,  as  yet,  discovered  a  partiality 
for  any  of  her  admirers,  they  are  all  animated  with 
hopes  of  success." 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  beauty,  her  varied  gifts,  her 
means  and  good  connections,  all  contributed  to  her 
social  success.  It  was  said  that  during  this  season 
in  London  she  refused  many  excellent  offers  of 
marriage,  including  one  from  the  young  Duke  of 
Bedford,  who  on  her  refusal  never  married,  but  re- 
mained in  love  with  her  until  the  day  of  his  death.1 
Probably  she  wished  to  enjoy  her  freedom,  and  did 
not  desire  to  enter  the  matrimonial  state  again  so 
soon.  It  is  certain  that  she  might  have  married  a 
third  time  almost  any  one  she  would,  and  have 
occupied  an  assured  position  of  rank  and  dignity 
had  not  evil  destiny  thrown  her  in  the  path  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales. 

1  Francis,  fifth  Duke  of  Bedford  (1765-1802).  This  is  open  to  doubt, 
for  the  Duke  was  then  only  in  his  twentieth  year,  and  in  after  life  he 
was  said  to  be  in  love  with  Charlotte  Princess  Royal,  eldest  daughter 
of  George  III.  The  Duke,  however,  was  always  a  great  friend  of 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert's,  and  he  died  unmarried. 


CHAPTER    III 

PRINCE  CHARMING 

(1762—1784) 

GEORGE,  Prince  of  Wales,  had  barely  come  of 
age1  when  he  first  met  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  but  he 
had  already  entered  on  that  career  of  pleasure 
which  marked  his  hot  youth  and  his  wild  man- 
hood. By  his  thousand  extravagances,  his  racing, 
his  gambling,  his  lavish  hospitality,  the  "  improve- 
ment" of  his  palace  of  Carl  ton  House,  and  his 
reckless  generosity  to  the  fair  sex,  he  was  already 
piling  up  that  burden  of  debt  which  was  to  embarrass 
him  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

By  inclination  as  well  as  by  position,  he  was  the 
leader  of  fashion  and  gaiety  in  London,  and  society 
generally  encouraged  and  applauded  him  in  his  ex- 
travagances. When  the  young  Prince  first  "  came 
upon  the  town,"  London  was  (after  Paris)  the 
gayest  city  in  the  world ;  and  all  society,  men  and 
women,  old  and  young,  were  devoted  to  the  pur- 
suit of  pleasure  in  its  most  showy  and  pronounced 
form.  The  spirit  of  robust  enjoyment  of  the  early 
Georgian  era  still  flourished,  but  some  of  its  gross- 
ness  had  worn  off,  and  there  had  come  a  veneer, 
hardly  to  be  called  refinement,  which  seemed  to 
have  more  in  common  with  the  Stuarts  than  with 

1  George  IV.  was  born  at  St.  James'  Palace,  August  12,  1762. 


PRINCE   CHARMING  27 

the  House  of  Hanover.  George  III.  and  Queen 
Charlotte  by  their  parsimonious  court  and  strict 
lives  had  lost  touch  with  society  (in  the  restricted 
sense  of  the  word,  though  they  were  popular  with 
the  middle  classes),  and  could  no  longer  restrain 
its  excesses.  They  lived  chiefly  at  Kew  and 
Windsor,  and  except  in  name  there  was  no  longer 
a  court  in  London.  The  advent,  therefore,  of  a 
brilliant  and  handsome  Prince,  to  whom  the  world 
seemed  a  garden  of  delight,  was  hailed  with  rapture. 
It  was  declared  that  for  the  first  time  since  the 
death  of  Charles  II.  an  English  Prince  was  a 
gentleman  and  a  wit.  It  was  hoped  that  the  day 
of  German  predilections  and  German  manners  was 
over.  To  London  society,  weary  of  the  dulness 
and  ugliness  of  the  courts  of  the  early  Georgian 
Sovereigns,  this  young  Prince,  born  on  English 
soil,  bred  in  England,  and  speaking  English  with 
"  no  Westphalian  accent,"  as  Horace  Wai  pole  calls 
it,  came  as  a  Prince  Charming.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  charming  ;  no  Stuart 
Prince  was  ever  more  graceful  than  he,  more  gene- 
rous, and  one  would  fain  hope  more  chivalrous. 
He  was  tall,  and  finely  formed  ;  he  had  a  hand- 
some and  manly  countenance ;  his  leg — legs  were 
much  esteemed  in  the  eighteenth  century — was  the 
envy  of  all  the  beaux ;  his  smile  the  desire  of  all 
the  belles ;  and  his  bow  the  most  princely  bow  of 
any  prince  in  Europe.  His  beauty  was  heightened 
by  the  picturesque  dress  of  the  period.  He  dressed 
with  great  richness  and  variety,  as  well  he  might, 
for  it  is  said  that  his  clothes,  for  one  year,  amounted 
to  no  less  than  ;£  10,000.  One  of  his  early  admirers, 


28  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

who  had  every  opportunity  of  judging,  dwells  on 
the  "graces  of  his  person,  the  irresistible  sweet- 
ness of  his  smile,  the  tenderness  of  his  melodious 
yet  manly  voice,  the  polish  and  fascinating  ingenu- 
ousness of  his  manners." J 

The  young  Prince  had  the  happy  faculty  of 
seeming  to  be  intensely  interested  in  the  person  to 
whom  he  was  talking,  whoever  that  person  might 
be,  and  he  could  talk  well  on  almost  any  subject, 
for  he  had  considerable  natural  ability  and  many 
accomplishments.  He  could  speak  French,  Italian, 
and  German  fluently ;  he  was  well-read  in  the 
classics  ;  he  was  a  fine  musician  ;  and  he  affected  a 
taste  for  art  and  the  belles  lettres.  His  taste  was 
not  always  correct,  and  tended  overmuch  to  the 
showy  and  florid,  yet,  in  comparison  with  that  of 
his  father,  who  had  no  taste  at  all,  it  was  hailed  as 
perfect.  With  all  his  luxurious  habits  he  could  not 
be  called  effeminate.  He  loved  outdoor  exercise, 
and  showed  to  great  advantage  on  horseback  ;  he 
was  a  good  shot,  an  accomplished  fencer,  skilful  in 
the  noble  art  of  self-defence,  and  could  on  occasion 
use  his  fists  with  good  effect.  These  things  stood 
to  his  credit.  On  the  other  hand  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  he  was  not  truthful.  But  the  blame 
for  that  did  not  rest  wholly  with  him.  "You 
know  I  don't  speak  the  truth,"  he  said  once,  "and 
my  brothers  don't,  the  Queen  having  taught  us 
early  to  equivocate."  It  is  also  true  that  he  was 
reckless  and  dissipated,  that  the  town  was  full  of 
stories  of  his  wild  doings,  that  he  gambled,  and 
drank  and  swore,  and  he  had  already  been  engaged 

1  "  Memoirs  of  Mary  Robinson  :  '  Perdita,'"  1895. 


PRINCE   CHARMING  29 

in  several  affairs  of  gallantry.  But  these  things 
did  not  make  him  unpopular ;  on  the  contrary,  sad 
to  relate,  they  rather  added  to  his  popularity.  Most 
of  the  young  men  of  fashion  in  those  days  (and 
many  of  the  old  men  too)  played  for  high  stakes, 
drank  more  than  was  good  for  them,  rapped  out 
fearful  oaths  on  the  smallest  provocation,  and  all 
too  lightly  regarded  the  marriage  tie.  One  cannot 
make  the  young  Prince  responsible  (as  some  would 
seem  to  do)  for  all  the  vices  and  follies  of  his  day. 
In  fact  one  cannot  hold  him  altogether  responsible 
for  his  own,  when  we  look  back  on  his  loveless 
boyhood  and  unwise  upbringing.  His  father  was 
cold,  stiff,  and  unsympathetic  ;  he  disliked  his  eldest 
son,  treated  him  harshly,  and  openly  insulted  him 
before  the  courtiers.  His  mother  alternately  spoilt 
him  and  turned  against  him.  His  younger  brother 
Frederick,1  to  whom  he  was  devotedly  attached, 
was  taken  away  from  him,  when  on  the  threshold  of 
manhood,  and  sent  to  Hanover.  He  had  no  one 
to  help  or  advise  him,  and  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  there  was  one  disinterested  person,  among 
all  his  so-called  friends,  who  really  cared  for  him. 
His  impulses  were  good,  he  was  affectionate  and 
warm-hearted,  generous  and  open-handed  to  a 
fault.  We  speak  of  him  as  he  was  in  his  early 
manhood ;  the  time  had  not  yet  come  when  all  the 
good  in  him  was  turned  to  evil  by  bad  companions, 
parasites  and  flatterers,  his  very  virtues  tortured 
into  vices,  and  every  noble  instinct  choked  by  the 
growth  of  gross  passions.  One  could  not  say  of 

1  Frederick,  Prince  Bishop  of  Osnabriick,  afterwards  Duke  of  York, 
second  son  of  George  III. 


30  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

him  even  in  his  youth,  that  he  was  unspotted  from 
the  world,  but  one  could  say  that  he  had  more 
good  in  him  than  evil,  and  had  his  finer  qualities 
been  fostered  and  developed  he  would  have  grown 
up  a  wiser  and  a  better  man.  His  tutor,  Bishop 
Hurd,  was  asked  one  day  his  opinion  of  his  pupil, 
then  a  boy  of  fifteen  years  of  age.  "  I  can  hardly 
tell,"  he  replied  ;  "  he  will  be  either  the  most  polished 
gentleman  or  the  most  accomplished  blackguard  in 
Europe,  possibly  both." l  The  "  possibly  both  "  in 
years  to  come  proved  the  true  prediction. 

The  Prince  of  Wales  had  passed  his  boyhood  shut 
up  in  a  palace  which  was  almost  a  prison,  and  de- 
prived of  rational  amusements.  H  is  father's  jealousy 
kept  him  back  as  much  as  possible,  treating  him  as 
a  child  when  he  was  a  boy  and  as  a  boy  when  he 
was  a  man.  So  things  went  on  until  the  Prince 
reached  his  nineteenth  year,  when,  as  he  became 
legally  of  age  as  heir  to  the  throne,  the  King  could 
no  longer  keep  him  under  lock  and  key,  and  was 
compelled  to  grant  him  a  small  establishment  of  his 
own  and  apartments  in  Buckingham  House.  For 
even  this  limited  measure  of  freedom  the  Prince  was 
all  unprepared,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  his  new- 
found liberty  degenerated  into  license.  He  fell  into 
bad  company ;  he  had  an  amour  with  the  beautiful 
actress  Perdita  Robinson  ;  he  made  friends  with  his 
uncle  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  who  hated  the  King 
and  Queen  because  of  their  refusal  to  receive  his 
Duchess  at  court,  and  therefore  did  his  best  to 
prejudice  the  son  against  the  father.  He  also  be- 
came intimate  with  the  Duke  of  Chartres,  afterwards 

1  °  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Richard  Hurd,"  1860. 


KEW   PALACE,    WHERE   GEORGE,    PRINCE   OF   WALES, 
WAS   BORN 


CARLTON   HOUSE,    FACING   PALL   MALL 


PRINCE   CHARMING  31 

Duke  of  Orleans,  the  notorious  Egalite,  who  led  him 
into  great  extravagance.  To  all  these  companions 
the  King  naturally  objected,  but  he  objected  still 
more  to  the  Prince's  connection  with  the  Whigs,  and 
especially  to  his  close  friendship  with  Charles  James 
Fox,  then  at  the  height  of  his  brilliant  talents. 
George  III.'s  hatred  of  Fox  amounted  almost  to  a 
mania,  and  he  came  to  regard  him  as  the  instigator 
of  all  his  son's  escapades.  When  the  Prince  came 
of  full  age  in  1783  his  friends  the  Whigs  chanced 
to  be  in  power,  and  Ministers  proposed  that  the 
King  should  give  him  ,£100,000  a  year  from  the 
Civil  List.  The  King  turned  on  them  with  an  out- 
burst of  rage,  and  accused  them  of  being  "  ready  to 
sacrifice  the  public  interests  to  the  wishes  of  an  ill- 
advised  young  man."  He  spoke  tauntingly  of  the 
government — the  Coalition  Ministry — as  "my  son's 
Ministry,"  and  conducted  himself  so  outrageously 
that  the  Ministers  threatened  to  resign.  The  Prince 
behaved  well  and  with  dignity,  and  in  the  end  a 
compromise  was  arrived  at,  the  King  giving  £50,000 
a  year  out  of  the  Civil  List  and  Parliament  granting 
,£30,000  for  the  Prince's  debts  (he  had  already  debts) 
and  as  much  more  for  his  outfit. 

The  Prince  was  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  own 
income  and  of  his  separate  establishment  at  Carl  ton 
House,  which  had  been  given  him  as  a  suitable 
residence.  Carlton  House  stood  opposite  what  is 
now  Waterloo  Place,  looking  northward.  The  fore- 
court was  separated  from  Pall  Mall  by  a  long  range 
of  columns ;  this  colonnade  screened  the  facade  from 
the  gaze  of  the  vulgar.  The  palace  was  entered  by 
a  handsome  Corinthian  portico.  The  fine  entrance 


32  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

hall  and  a  great  staircase  with  a  railing  glittering 
with  gold  led  to  several  magnificent  saloons,  such 
as  the  state  apartments,  the  cupola  room,  the  rose 
satin  drawing-room,  and  the  armoury,  said  to  be  one 
of  the  finest  in  Europe.  The  Prince's  private  apart- 
ments were  on  the  ground  floor,  looking  over  the 
gardens  which  ran  as  far  as  Marlborough  House, 
and  in  the  summer  were  a  mass  of  leaf  and  bloom.1 

Emancipated  from  parental  control,  the  first  use 
the  Prince  made  of  his  freedom  was  to  identify  him- 
self more  closely  than  before  with  the  principles  of 
the  Whig  Party.  He  made  a  speech  in  the  House 
of  Lords  in  which  he  declared — •"  I  exist  by  the  love, 
friendship,  and  benevolence  of  the  people,  and  their 
cause  I  will  never  forsake  as  long  as  I  live."  He 
attended  the  debates  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
showed  his  sympathy  with  the  Whigs  by  noisily 
applauding  their  speeches.  The  King  and  the 
Tories  made  a  great  outcry  about  this,  but  as 
George  III.  was  a  violent  partisan  on  the  other 
side,  and  was  secretly  plotting  the  overthrow  of  his 
own  (Whig)  Government,  it  was  hardly  for  him  to 
rebuke  the  conduct  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  on  this 
head. 

The  Coalition  Ministry  came  suddenly  and  igno- 
miniously  to  an  end  in  December  1783,  and  the 
Prince's  friends  went  out  of  office.  The  Prince  took 
an  eager  part  in  the  general  election  that  followed 
in  May  1 784,  especially  on  behalf  of  his  friend  Fox, 
the  "man  of  the  people,"  who  stood  for  West- 
minster. The  story  of  the  Westminster  election 

1  Carlton  House  was  pulled  down  in  1828  to  make  room  for  the 
central  opening  of  Waterloo  Place.  Some  of  the  Corinthian  columns 
now  help  to  form  the  portico  of  the  National  Gallery. 


PRINCE   CHARMING  33 

has  been  told  too  often  to  need  re-telling  here.  The 
Prince  turned  Carlton  House  into  a  committee  room 
for  his  friends,  and  the  beautiful  Duchess  of  Devon- 
shire bought  votes  with  her  kisses.  When  Fox's 
name  appeared  at  the  head  of  the  poll  he  was  carried 
in  procession  to  Carlton  House  in  a  chair  wreathed 
with  laurels  and  preceded  by  a  banner  inscribed 
"Sacred  to  Female  Patriotism."  The  same  night 
the  Prince,  arrayed  in  buff  and  blue,  Fox's  party 
colours,  went  to  a  supper  party  given  by  the  fair 
and  fascinating  Mrs.  Crewe  in  honour  of  the  event. 
Fox  was  there  and  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire,  and 
all  were  arrayed  in  the  same  colours.  The  Prince 
gave  the  toast  "  True  blue  and  Mrs.  Crewe,"  to 
which  the  lady  with  ready  wit  replied  by  proposing 
"  True  blue  and  all  of  you."  The  Prince  also  cele- 
brated Fox's  victory  a  few  days  later  at  Carlton 
House  by  giving  a  magnificent  file.  The  young 
Prince  showed  to  great  advantage  in  his  own  house 
— no  host  ever  did  the  honours  more  gracefully — 
and  on  this  occasion  the  gentlemen,  including  the 
Prince  himself,  waited  on  the  ladies  at  table  before 
sitting  down  themselves.  This  ftte  was  regarded 
by  the  Court  as  the  climax  of  the  Prince's  insubordi- 
nation. No  notice  was  taken  of  his  birthday  at 
Windsor,  and  the  King  ranked  him  among  his 
enemies. 

The  Prince  did  not  take  this  mark  of  parental 
displeasure  very  much  to  heart,  and  found  dis- 
traction in  new  gaieties  and  entertainments. 
Of  all  the  brilliant,  pleasure-loving  crowd  who 
at  this  time  surrounded  the  Prince,  undoubtedly 
the  two  persons  who  exercised  the  most  influence 

VOL.  i.  c 


34  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

over  him  were  Fox  and  the  Duchess  of  Devon- 
shire. 

Charles  James  Fox 1  was  at  this  time  about  thirty- 
four  years  of  age,  and  in  the  meridian  of  his  fame 
and  his  great  abilities.  He  had  filled  high  offices 
under  the  Crown,  and  had  been  leader  of  the  House 
of  Commons  and  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign 
Affairs.  He  had  made  his  magnificent  oration  on 
the  American  War,  and  was  famous  in  both  hemi- 
spheres. He  had  inherited  from  his  ancestor, 
Charles  II.,  not  only  his  swarthy,  saturnine  appear- 
ance, but  also  his  love  of  vicious  pleasures,  more 
especially  for  gambling  and  women.  He  was 
stout,  heavily  built,  and  unwieldy,  negligent  in 
his  dress  and  slovenly  in  his  personal  appearance. 
But  when  he  smiled,  or  when  he  spoke,  his  whole 
being  seemed  transformed,  and  he  won  to  his  side 
all  whom  he  would.  He  was  a  good  friend — eager, 
warm-hearted,  unselfish.  His  personal  creed  was 
frankly  epicurean ;  in  religious  matters  he  had  no 
fixed  belief.  Yet  in  his  political  life  he  was  a  man 
of  lofty  ideals  and  high  principles.  Such  was  this 
remarkable  man,  the  "  my  dear  Charles  "  of  so  many 
of  the  young  Prince's  impassioned  letters.  The 
King  strove  in  vain  to  break  the  friendship,  and  in 
an  agony  implored  the  Lord  Chancellor,  Thurlow, 
to  tell  him  what  he  could  do.  "  Sir,"  replied  the 
surly  Thurlow,  "you  will  never  have  peace  until 
you  clap  'em  both  into  the  Tower." 

1  Charles  James  Fox  (1749-1806),  third  son  of  Henry  Fox, 
afterwards  Lord  Holland,  and  Lady  Caroline  Georgina,  daughter 
of  Charles  Lennox,  second  Duke  of  Richmond,  grandson  of 
Charles  II. 


PRINCE   CHARMING  35 

The  Duchess  of  Devonshire,1  who  was  devoted 
heart  and  soul  to  Fox,  also  exercised  an  influence 
over  the  Prince,  an  influence  social  rather  than  poli- 
tical, though  there  was  no  keener  politician  than 
she.  The  King  and  Queen  disliked  the  Duchess 
almost  as  much  as  Fox,  but  they  could  not  show 
their  displeasure  to  her  in  the  same  way.  When 
the  beautiful  Georgiana  condescended  to  grace  their 
dull  drawing-rooms  with  her  presence  they  were 
bound  to  receive  her  with  politeness,  for  the  young 
Duchess  of  Devonshire  was  a  very  great  lady,  not 
only  by  virtue  of  her  rank,  but  by  reason  of  her 
vivid  and  inspiring  personality.  Nearly  all  con- 
temporary accounts  describe  her  charms  as  beyond 
compare.  She  was  tall  and  most  divinely  fair,  with 
deep  blue  eyes,  and  hair  of  a  reddish  tinge.  Wraxall, 
who  knew  her  well,  says  that  the  secret  of  her  charm 
lay  deeper  than  her  beauty.  "  It  lay  in  the  amenity 
and  graces  of  her  deportment,  her  irresistible 
manners,  and  the  seductions  of  her  society.  .  .  . 
In  addition  to  the  external  advantages  she  had  re- 
ceived from  nature  and  fortune  she  possessed  an 
ardent  temper,  susceptible  of  deep  as  well  as  strong 
impressions  ;  a  cultivated  understanding,  illumi- 
nated by  a  taste  for  poetry  and  the  fine  arts  ;  much 
sensibility,  not  exempt,  perhaps,  from  vanity  and 
coquetry." 2  The  Duchess,  in  short,  was  a  brilliant 
paradox.  On  one  side  she  was  beautiful,  graceful 
and  witty,  kind-hearted  and  philanthropic,  full  of 
generous  impulses  and  high  ideals  ;  yet  on  the  other 

1  Georgiana  (1757-1806),  eldest  daughter  of  the  first  Earl  Spencer, 
married  1774  the  fifth  Duke  of  Devonshire. 

2  "Posthumous   Memoirs  of  my  own   Time,"  by   Sir   Nathaniel 
Wraxall. 


36  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

she  was  incredibly  reckless  and  foolish,  willing  to 
risk  everything  on  the  hazard  of  the  moment ;  of  a 
restless  energy  ever  seeking  something  new,  pant- 
ing for  notoriety,  swayed  by  desire,  living  always 
for  the  hour  with  no  thought  beyond,  yet  beyond 
all  words  lovable. 

This  peerless  creature  had  been  married  at  seven- 
teen to  a  husband  who  soon  grew  indifferent  to  her, 
a  grand  seigneur,  whose  constitutional  apathy  formed 
his  most  distinguishing  characteristic.  The  young 
Prince  of  Wales  was  much  influenced  by  the 
Duchess,  whom  he  declared,  not  without  reason,  to 
be  "the  best  bred  woman  in  England."  He  con- 
sulted her  on  all  matters  of  fashion  and  taste.  It 
was  she  who  helped  him  to  choose  the  furniture  and 
decorations  of  Carlton  House,  and  when  he  revived 
masquerades  which  had  fallen  into  disfavour,  it  was 
with  the  Duchess  that  he  opened  the  brilliant  one 
at  a  club  in  St.  James's  Street  Devonshire  House 
was  the  centre  of  Whiggism,  and  the  Duchess  was 
the  Egeria  of  the  party.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was 
a  constant  frequenter  of  the  parties  at  Devonshire 
House,  which  was  then  the  resort  not  only  of 
politicians  but  of  all  the  wits  and  beaux  esprits  of 
the  day. 

Such  was  George,  Prince  of  Wales,  such  his 
environment  and  his  friends,  when  he  thrust  him- 
self into  the  life  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 

It  is  not  possible  to  give  the  exact  date  when  the 
Prince  of  Wales  first  saw  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  but  we 
shall  probably  be  not  far  wrong  in  assuming  that  it 
was  some  time  during  the  year  of  his  coming  of  age. 


PRINCE   CHARMING  37 

Romance  and  tradition  have  it  that  they  first  met 
on  the  banks  of  the  Thames  at  Richmond  in  the 
spring  of  1783,  when  she  was  living  quietly  at 
Richmond  and  he  was  staying  at  Kew.  Neither 
knew  who  the  other  was,  but  the  Prince  fell  at  once 
in  love  with  the  fair  incognita.  In  the  excitement 
and  bustle  consequent  on  his  coming  of  age  (August 
1783)  he  appears  to  have  lost  sight  of  her  for  the 
time  being.  Yet  she  had  made  a  deep  impression  on 
him.  We  read  of  the  Prince  at  a  dinner  party  at 
Lord  Lewisham's  about  the  time  he  attained  his 
majority.  The  Prince  had  drunk  deep,  and  after 
dinner  fell  into  a  gloomy  reverie.  Presently  in  one 
of  those  confidences  with  which  he  often  honoured 
his  friends,  he  bewailed  his  sad  lot,  and  said  he 
envied  the  Dukes  of  Devonshire  and  Rutland,  who 
had  been  free  to  marry  beautiful  and  clever  women 
whom  they  loved.  For  his  part  he  supposed  he 
should  be  forced  to  marry  some  "ugly  German 
frow."  Then  he  turned  to  Rigby,  Master  of  the 
Rolls,  and  asked  him  what  he  would  advise  him 
to  do.  "  Faith,  sir,"  answered  Rigby,  "  I  am  not 
yet  drunk  enough  to  give  advice  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales  about  marrying."  The  conversation  showed 
that  there  was  something  on  the  Prince's  mind,  and 
before  long  that  something  was  revealed. 

According  to  another  account  the  Prince  first  saw 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  in  Lady  Sefton's  box  at  the  Opera, 
and  was  so  struck  with  her  unusual  beauty  that  he 
had  her  followed  home.  The  two  accounts  are  not 
necessarily  irreconcilable  if  we  read  the  second  to 
mean  that  it  was  the  first  time  he  saw  her  in  London. 
This  occasion  must  have  been  early  in  1784. 


38  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  come  to  London  in  March, 
and  there  is  nothing  more  probable  than  that  she 
should  have  been  at  the  Opera  with  her  relative, 
Lady  Sefton,  with  whom  she  went  everywhere  at 
that  time.  But  it  is  unlikely  that  the  Prince,  except 
for  the  mere  love  of  intrigue,  would  have  had  the 
lady  followed  home,  for  Lady  Sefton  was  well 
known  to  him,  and  he  could  have  gone  to  her 
box  and  requested  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  should  be 
presented  to  him.  Besides,  there  were  plenty  who 
could  have  told  him  of  the  "  lovely  Fitzherbert," 
who,  if  she  were  not  in  the  Prince's  set,  was  a  lady 
of  the  first  fashion,  who  had  already  created  a  sen- 
sation by  her  beauty.  The  Prince  was  a  connoisseur 
in  female  loveliness,  but  hers  was  of  an  unusual  type. 
Her  wealth  of  golden  hair  was  unpowdered,  the 
warm  pallor  of  her  cheeks  was  unrouged,  her 
lustrous  eyes  were  also  innocent  of  art,  and  her 
sunny  smile  was  guileless.  She  had  not  yet  de- 
veloped the  perhaps  too  aquiline  nose  that  came 
in  later  years,  her  profile  was  exquisite,  and  the 
curves  of  her  beautiful  figure  were  not  yet  marred 
by  being  too  round. 

The  Prince  always  vowed  that  he  fell  in  love 
with  the  lovely  young  widow  at  first  sight,  but 
then  he  vowed  that  of  many.  After  their  meeting, 
by  whatever  means  effected,  he  took  care  not 
to  lose  sight  of  her  again.  He  lost  no  time  in 
becoming  better  acquainted  with  her ;  he  eagerly 
sought  her  society,  and  found  her  not  only  beautiful, 
but  gifted  and  attractive — attractive  to  him  in  a 
way  no  woman  had  been  before.  His  passion  in- 
creased by  leaps  and  bounds.  He  made  opportu- 


PRINCE   CHARMING  39 

nities  of  meeting  her,  he  followed  her  everywhere, 
he  was  always  at  her  side,  and  his  attentions  to  her 
were  so  marked  that  before  long  they  became  the 
most  engrossing  topic  of  fashionable  conversation. 

The  Prince  soon  found  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was 
of  quite  another  calibre  to  the  ladies  whom  he  had 
hitherto  honoured  with  his  preference.  At  first  she 
accepted  his  homage  for  what  it  was  worth,  and 
the  marked  attentions  of  the  young  and  handsome 
Prince,  with  whom  half  the  women  in  London  were 
in  love,  flattered  her  vanity  if  it  did  not  touch  her 
heart.  The  Prince  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  to 
please  her,  and  his  utmost  was  very  good  indeed, 
but  she  did  not  treat  his  devotion  seriously.  She 
insisted  on  regarding  the  gay  and  graceful  badinage 
that  passed  between  them  as  nothing  more  than  the 
amusement  of  the  passing  hour,  to  be  forgotten  on 
the  morrow.  She  trusted  to  her  own  good  sense  to 
keep  his  devotion  within  due  limits,  but  the  Prince 
did  not  recognise  any  limits  where  his  passions  were 
concerned.  He  grew  more  impetuous  and  more 
fervid,  and  opposition  or  evasion  only  served  to 
make  him  keener.  She  could  not  parry  an  attack  so 
ardent  and  so  prolonged,  her  weapons  of  defence  were 
beaten  down  one  by  one,  until  at  last  she  was  forced 
to  realise  that  there  was  more  behind  his  vows  than 
mere  gallantry,  or  the  facile  protestations  of  an 
amorous  boy.  Then  she  became  alarmed,  and 
strove  too  late  to  break  off  the  acquaintance ; 
but  the  Prince  was  not  to  be  baffled — the  more 
she  opposed  him  the  more  persistent  were  his 
attentions.  There  was  no  extravagance  of  which  he 
was  not  capable,  and  the  lady  began  to  be  fearful 


40  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

lest  her  good  name  should  become  compromised. 
It  did  not  matter  what  line  she  took,  whether  she 
met  him  with  firmness  and  indifference,  whether  she 
besought  him  with  tears  and  entreaties  to  leave  her 
in  peace,  or  met  his  vows  with  incredulity  or  ridicule. 
Whatever  she  did  only  served  to  inflame  his  ardour. 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  at  her  wits'  end  how  to 
escape  the  Prince's  importunities.  She  did  not  leave 
London  until  the  season  was  over,  for  she  had  many 
friends,  she  loved  society,  and  was  generally  admired. 
She  did  not  need  the  Prince's  admiration  to  give  a 
cachet  to  her  social  success,  for  it  hindered  rather 
than  helped  her.  When  she  retired  to  her  villa  at 
Richmond  in  the  summer  he  pursued  her  there,  and 
contrived  on  some  pretext  or  another  to  spend 
hours  daily  in  her  society.  It  is  said  that  the 
popular  ballad1 — 

"  I'd  crowns  resign  to  call  thee  mine, 
Sweet  lass  of  Richmond  Hill " — 

was  inspired  by  the  Prince's  devotion  to  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  which  had  by  now  become  the  talk  of 
the  town.  But  this  seems  open  to  doubt,  for  the 
lady  was  hardly  "  a  lass  "  at  the  time,  being  in  the 
twenty-eighth  year  of  her  age,  and  twice  a  widow. 
She  was  old  enough  certainly  to  see  the  folly  of  en- 
couraging the  Prince's  devotion,  and  to  realise  that 
she  had  everything  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain  by 
such  an  entanglement.  Whither  could  it  lead  ?  She 
had  told  him  in  the  words  Lady  Waldegrave  once 
used  to  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  "that  though  she 
was  too  inconsiderable  a  person  to  become  his  wife, 

,    *  The  ballad  was  sung  at  Vauxhall  in  1789. 


GEORGE,  PRINCE   OF   WALES 

(From  the  Painting  bv  THOMAS  GAINSBOROUGH  at  Aske,  by  permission  of  the 
MARQUESS  OF  ZETLAND) 


PRINCE   CHARMING  41 

she  was  too  considerable  to  become  his  mistress." 
The  Duke  of  Gloucester  had  got  over  the  difficulty 
by  marrying  the  lady,  who  was  now  his  duchess,  but 
that  marriage,  though  a  clandestine  one,  was  legal,  as  it 
took  place  before  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  was  passed. 
Moreover,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  was  not  the  heir- 
apparent  to  the  throne,  and  his  duchess  (a  woman 
of  inferior  birth  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert)  was  a  member 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  a 
Roman  Catholic  by  birth,  education,  and  marriage, 
and  she  would  not  for  any  earthly  consideration 
sacrifice  her  religion.  She  was  a  woman  of  high 
principles,  of  irreproachable  virtue,  of  independent 
fortune  and  good  position.  It  was  a  case  of  marriage 
or  nothing  at  all ;  but  since  marriage  was  impossible, 
it  would  be  better,  she  said,  for  the  Prince  to  forget 
her.  Her  heart  was  touched,  it  was  difficult  to 
deny  her  love  to  one  who  pleaded  so  eloquently, 
and  who  vowed  that  he  would  abjure  crown  and  king- 
dom for  her  sake,  but  she  stood  firm.  At  last  she 
refused  to  see  him,  and  gave  no  answer  to  his  letters. 
"She  resisted,"  we  are  told,  "with  the  utmost 
anxiety  and  firmness  the  flattering  assiduities  of 
the  most  accomplished  Prince  of  his  age.  She  was 
well  aware  of  the  gulf  that  yawned  beneath  those 
flattering  demonstrations  of  Royal  adulation." l 

So  things  went  on  until  the  autumn  of  1784. 
The  Prince  had  become  almost  beside  himself  with 
the  extravagance  of  his  passion.  He  vowed  he 
could  not,  and  would  not,  live  without  her.  He 
passed  days  and  nights  in  tears  and  violent  emotion. 
His  chosen  friends  in  whom  he  confided  were  at 
Langdale,  op,  cit. 


42  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

a  loss  to  know  what  to  do  to  pacify  him,  and 
since  he  swore  that  nothing  would  satisfy  him  but 
to  gain  the  object  of  his  desire,  they  would  have 
liked  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  to  waive  her  scruples  and 
surrender  at  discretion.  It  was  far  from  their  in- 
terests to  connive  at  a  secret  marriage  between  the 
Prince  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  They  knew  that  such 
a  marriage  was  illegal  by  an  Act  of  Parliament, 
which  made  the  abettors  liable  to  severe  penalties, 
and  if  by  any  flaw  the  Act  could  be  evaded  and  the 
union  regarded  as  legal,  it  would  expose  the  Prince 
to  even  greater  dangers  for  having  married  a  Roman 
Catholic.  These  considerations  they  put  before  the 
Prince,  but  he  refused  to  listen  to  the  voice  of 
prudence.  Remonstrances  only  made  him  more 
desperate.  All  his  life  he  was  subject  to  attacks 
of  violent  excitability,  akin  to  the  terrible  illness 
from  which  his  father  suffered.  Opposition  to  his 
desires  goaded  him  to  the  point  of  madness.  In 
this  state  he  made  not  only  his  own  life  but  the  lives 
of  every  one  around  him  unbearable,  until  at  last, 
worn  out  by  the  intolerable  strain,  some  of  his 
confidential  friends  (and  he  had  always  some  at 
hand  ready  to  pander  to  his  follies)  thought  they 
saw  a  way  out  of  the  difficulty.  They  hit  upon  an 
expedient — "some  sort  of  ceremony"  which,  they 
hoped,  would  deceive  the  lady,  and  not  be  binding 
on  the  Prince — in  fact  a  mock  marriage.  Some- 
thing they  felt  had  to  be  done,  for  the  affair  had 
reached  an  acute  stage.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  worn  out 
by  the  Prince's  importunities,  and  not  sure  what 
extravagance  he  might  commit,  perhaps  not  sure  of 
herself,  resolved  to  flee  temptation  and  go  abroad. 


PRINCE   CHARMING  43 

This  resolution  reached  the  ears  of  the  Prince  and 
plunged  him  into  the  most  violent  agitation.  A 
crisis  arrived. 

One  morning  in  November  1784,  when  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  was  in  London  making  preparations  for 
her  journey,  a  coach  drew  up  at  the  door  of  her 
house  in  Park  Street,  and  four  members  of  the 
Prince's  household,  Lord  Onslow,  Lord  Southamp- 
ton, Mr.  Edward  Bouverie,1  and  Keate,  the  surgeon, 
descended  from  it  and  demanded  to  see  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert on  urgent  business.  When  she  received  them 
she  saw  that  they  were  in  the  "  utmost  consternation." 
They  informed  her  "that  the  life  of  the  Prince  was 
in  imminent  danger — that  he  had  stabbed  himself— - 
and  that  only  her  immediate  presence  would  save 
him.  She  resisted  in  the  most  peremptory  manner 
all  their  importunities,  saying  that  nothing  should 
induce  her  to  enter  Carlton  House."2  She  well 
knew  its  reputation  and  suspected  a  trap.  Still  they 
implored  her  to  come  with  them,  and  so  save  this 
precious  life.  It  is  probable  that  Keate,  the  surgeon, 
added  his  testimony  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Prince's 
wound.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  became  agitated  and 
alarmed,  but  still  she  held  back.  She  could  not  go 
alone  with  men  to  the  house  of  her  lover  without 
risking  her  reputation.  At  last,  between  love  and 
fear,  she  gave  a  half  consent  and  said  she  would  go, 
but  on  the  indispensable  condition  that  "  some  lady 
of  high  character"  was  found  to  accompany  her. 
She  may  have  thought  of  her  relative,  Lady  Sefton, 

1  The  Hon.  Edward  Bouverie,  second  son  of  first  Viscount  Folke- 
stone, later  M.P.  for  Northampton,  d.  1810. 

2  Langdale,  op.  cit. 


44  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

but  we  are  told  that  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire 
was  selected.  She  was  certainly  more  pliable  than 
Lady  Sefton,  and  was  besides  a  friend  of  both  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  and  the  Prince.  This  difficulty  overcome, 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  entered  the  coach  which  was  wait- 
ing outside,  and  drove  with  the  four  men  to  Devon- 
shire House.  There  she  found  the  Duchess,  who 
assented  willingly,  delighted  at  the  idea  of  taking 
part  in  so  romantic  an  adventure.  Accompanied 
by  the  Duchess,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  drove  to  Carlton 
House,  and  was  at  once  admitted  to  the  Prince's 
presence.  She  found  him  in  his  private  apartment 
on  the  ground  floor,  which  overlooked  the  garden 
and  St.  James's  Park.  He  was  pale  and  covered 
with  blood  which  issued  from  a  wound  in  his  side, 
the  wound  which  his  friends  assured  her  had  been 
self-inflicted  by  the  Prince  in  consequence  of  her 
cruelty.  According  to  the  Prince,  he  had  fallen 
upon  his  sword.  According  to  another  account,  he 
had  stabbed  himself  with  a  dagger.  According  to 
a  third,  he  had  tried  to  shoot  himself,  but  hit  the 
head  of  his  bed  instead  ;  the  pistol  had  been  taken 
away  from  him,  he  then  possessed  himself  of  a  table 
knife  and  drove  it  into  his  side.  This  would  go 
to  show  that  he  was  either  half-mad  or  half-drunk, 
or,  between  the  two,  had  worked  himself  up  to  a 
frenzy.  The  theory  has  also  been  put  forward  that 
the  Prince  had  simply  been  "  blooded  "  by  Keate  to 
relieve  the  violence  of  his  passion,  and  he  had 
dabbled  the  blood  about  his  clothes  to  make  himself 
look  more  interesting  in  the  eyes  of  his  beloved. 
However  this  may  have  been,  he  was  successful  in 
arousing  her  sympathies.  The  sight  of  her  lover  in 


PRINCE   CHARMING  45 

such  a  plight  so  overcame  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  that 
"she  was  deprived  almost  of  consciousness."  This 
was  exactly  what  the  Prince  wanted.  He  pushed 
home  his  advantage  by  vowing  that  "  nothing  would 
induce  him  to  live  unless  she  promised  to  become 
his  wife,  and  permitted  him  to  put  a  ring  round  her 
finger."  The  frightened  lady  gave  the  promise,  for 
she  firmly  believed  that  nothing  else  would  save  him 
from  self-destruction,  and  a  ring,  one  borrowed 
from  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire,  who,  with  the 
men  before  mentioned,  were  interested  witnesses  of 
the  scene,  was  put  upon  her  finger,  and  so  completed 
the  ceremony.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  acquiescence 
calmed  the  Prince,  and  trusting  to  her  promise  to 
be  his  wife  he  suffered  her  to  depart.  She  drove 
back  with  the  Duchess  to  Devonshire  House,  the 
four  men  following,  and  a  deposition  was  drawn  up, 
signed  and  sealed  by  each  one  of  the  party.1 

When  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  returned  to  her  own  house 
and  could  look  back  quietly  over  the  events  of  the 
exciting  day,  she  clearly  saw  that  it  was  not  a 
ceremony  which  could  be  binding  either  on  her 
honour  or  her  conscience.  It  was  in  short  a  mock 
marriage,  and  the  four  "gentlemen  "  who  had  planned 
it  had  conspired  against  her  honour.  From  this 
conspiracy  she  exonerated  the  Prince,  who  had 
frequently  expressed  himself  as  ready  and  willing  to 
marry  her ;  then  and  all  her  life  she  believed  that 
the  Prince  had  sought  to  kill  himself  for  her  sake, 
and  that  nothing  but  her  compliance  with  his  wishes 

1  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  told  Lord  Stourton  after  George  IV.'s  death  that 
"for  all  she  knew  to  the  contrary  it  [the  deposition]  might  still  be 
there." — Langdale,  op,  cit. 


46  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

at  the  moment  had  saved  him  from  self-destruction. 
Half  a  century  later,  when  she  narrated  this  extra- 
ordinary incident  to  her  relative,  Lord  Stourton,  he 
suggested  "  that  some  trick  had  been  practised  and 
that  it  was  not  really  the  blood  of  His  Royal  High- 
ness," but  she  assured  him  to  the  contrary.  She 
declared  that  "  she  had  frequently  seen  the  scar," l 
and  added  the  not  very  convincing  proof  that  some 
brandy-and-water  was  near  his  bedside.  In  her 
bewilderment  she  was  not  at  the  time  a  very  critical 
observer,  and  like  the  Prince  she  was  of  an  excitable 
and  emotional  temperament.  Like  many  another 
woman,  even  the  most  diffident,  she  cherished  the 
secret  belief  that  her  lover  would  be  ready  to  die  for 
her  sake.  Her  romantic  sympathies  were  aroused, 
and  she  was  touched  by  this  proof  of  his  devotion. 
But  now  that  the  immediate  danger  was  over  her 
fears  on  her  own  account  returned  with  redoubled 
force.  She  realised  her  peril,  and,  always  swayed 
by  impulse,  she  resolved  to  carry  out  her  intention 
of  flight.  She  wrote  a  letter  that  same  evening 
to  Lord  Southampton,  denouncing  the  conduct  of 
himself  and  his  colleagues  in  enticing  her  to  Carlton 
House.  She  protested  against  what  had  taken 
place  there,  and  declared  that,  as  she  was  taken 
by  surprise,  she  could  not  be  considered  a  free 
agent.  The  next  morning  she  left  England. 

1  The  Rev.  Johnes  Knight  also  said  that  the  Prince  showed  him  the 
scar  when  he  wanted  him  to  perform  the  marriage  between  him  and 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 


CHAPTER    IV 

FLIGHT 
(1784— 1785) 

MRS.  FITZHERBERT  went  first  to  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
the  ancient  city  of  Charlemagne.  In  those  days 
Aix-la-Chapelle  was  a  favourite  health  resort,  and 
much  frequented  by  English  as  well  as  by  foreign 
notabilities.  The  medicinal  powers  of  its  sulphur 
springs  were  famous  all  over  Europe,  and  the  com- 
parative nearness  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  to  England 
made  it  a  formidable  rival  to  Bath  and  Cheltenham 
among  English  people  as  a  resort,  not  only  of  health 
but  of  pleasure.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  visited  Aix  at 
intervals  throughout  her  life.  On  this  occasion  she 
stayed  there  for  some  weeks,  and  on  leaving  she 
crossed  the  frontier  to  the  neighbouring  country  of 
Holland  and  went  to  The  Hague.  The  Hague  was 
also  a  resort  of  English  people,  many  of  whom  lived 
there,  as  they  used  to  live  at  Breda,  for  motives  of 
economy,  a  motive  which  did  not  enter  in  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert's  case.  But  at  this  time  there  were 
comparatively  few  English  at  The  Hague,  for  Hol- 
land was  in  an  unsettled  state,  torn  by  conflicting 
parties  within,  and  harassed  from  without  by  the 
opposing  interests  of  France  and  England.  France 
had  encouraged  the  state  to  form  a  pure  republic, 
independent  of  the  Stadtholder,  and  so  render  it  a 


48  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

French  province.  The  English  policy  was  to 
preserve  the  state's  independence  and  to  form  an 
Anglo- Dutch  alliance. 

The  Stadtholder,  who  was  a  grandson  of  George 
II.,1  favoured  the  English  policy,  and  was  anxious 
to  strengthen  his  dynasty  by  an  alliance  between 
one  of  his  daughters  and  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
The  Stadtholder  was  weak  and  vacillating,  but 
his  consort2  was  a  high-spirited,  clever  and  accom- 
plished princess.  Her  domestic  life  was  unhappy, 
and  her  public  life  one  of  perpetual  anxiety. 
It  is  strange  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  should  have 
elected  to  go  to  The  Hague  at  a  time  when 
the  country  was  on  the  verge  of  civil  war,  and 
the  reigning  family  on  the  brink  of  ruin,  but  she 
probably  had  introductions  to  the  court  of  Orange, 
for  she  was  received  with  the  greatest  kindness 
by  the  Stadtholder  and  his  family.  The  Stadt- 
holder was  proud  of  his  descent  from  the  Royal 
Family  of  Great  Britain,  and  was  always  willing  to 
welcome  English  people  for  their  own  sake.  It 
would  seem,  however,  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was 
admitted  to  terms  of  unusual  intimacy,  and  the 
young  Princess  of  Orange  in  particular,  who  wished 
to  be  Princess  of  Wales,  honoured  her  with  her  confi- 
dence. Personal  kinship  and  public  interest  marked 
the  Princess  out  as  a  likely  candidate,  and  she, 
knowing  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  well  known  in 
the  fashionable  world  of  London,  plied  her  with 
questions  concerning  the  Prince  and  the  English 

1  Anne,  Princess  Royal,  the  eldest  daughter  of  George  II.,  married 
in  1733  tne  Prince  of  Orange. 

2  The  Princess  of  Orange  was  the  daughter  of  Prince  William 
Augustus  of  Prussia,  and  a  niece  of  Frederick  the  Great. 


FLIGHT  49 

court,  all  unconscious  of  the  fact  that  she  was 
confiding  in  "her  most  dangerous  rival."1  The 
position  was  exceedingly  embarrassing  to  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert.  Of  the  Prince  she  knew  much,  a  great 
deal  more  than  she  cared  to  say,  but  of  the  English 
court  she  could  have  known  little  more  than  any 
other  woman  of  fashion  who  attended  Queen  Char- 
lotte's drawing-rooms.  She  parried  the  questions 
of  the  would-be  Princess  of  Wales  as  well  as  she 
could,  and  said  nothing  of  what  had  passed  between 
the  Prince  and  herself.  Indeed  she  saw,  or  thought 
she  saw,  in  the  possible  alliance  an  escape  from  her 
own  difficulties,  and  would  willingly  have  furthered 
it  if  she  could.  She  thus  excused  herself  from  any 
reflection  of  double-dealing.  Of  course  she  could 
do  nothing  either  to  help  or  hinder  the  union,  and 
subsequent  events  proved  that  a  marriage  of  policy, 
such  as  this,  would  have  been  a  very  slight  obstacle 
in  the  path  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  where  his  desires 
were  concerned.  The  projected  marriage  fell  to  the 
ground.  In  after  years,  when  the  Stadtholder  was 
a  fugitive  in  England,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  met  both 
him  and  the  Princess  again.  By  that  time  her  re- 
lations with  the  Prince  of  Wales  were  well  known. 
The  Princess  of  Orange  good-humouredly  acquitted 
her  former  friend  of  all  blame  (perhaps  she  thought 
she  had  a  lucky  escape),  but  the  Stadtholder  treated 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  with  great  coolness,  and  evidently 
attributed  to  her  the  failure  of  the  match. 

During  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  visit  to  The  Hague,  no 
hint  of  her  entanglement  with  the  Prince  of  Wales 
reached  the  court  of  Orange.  The  Stadtholder 

1  Langdale,  op.  cit. 
VOL.  I.  D 


50  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

treated  her  with  every  courtesy,  and  when  she 
'brought  her  sojourn  to  a  close  he  placed  his  state 
barge  at  her  disposal  to  convey  her  to  Antwerp. 
The  cause  which  probably  led  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
to  take  her  departure  from  The  Hague,  where  she 
was  so  well  received,  was  the  arrival  there,  at  the 
end  of  December  1784,  of  Sir  James  Harris,1  who 
had  been  accredited  British  Minister  to  the  court 
of  Orange.  Harris  was  an  able  diplomatist,  an 
astute  man  of  the  world,  and  a  consummate  courtier  ; 
he  was  honoured  by  the  confidence  of  George  III. 
and  Queen  Charlotte,  who  often  employed  him  in 
private  matters  with  regard  to  their  troublesome 
family.  He  was  also  on  terms  of  intimate  friend- 
ship with  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  the  story  of  the 
Prince's  devotion  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  must  have 
been  well  known  to  him.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  there- 
fore did  not  care  to  meet  him  at  this  juncture,  and 
hastened  her  departure  from  The  Hague  in  order  to 
avoid  him. 

She  went  first  to  Paris ;  but  as  she  sought  retire- 
ment, she  did  not  stay  there  long.  Early  in  1785 
we  hear  of  her  in  Switzerland,  and  then  a  little  later 
at  Plombiers  in  Lorraine.  At  Plombiers  we  must 
leave  her  for  a  time  and  return  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales. 

The  day  after  the  scene  at  Carlton  House  the 
Prince  of  Wales  "went  down  into  the  country  to 
Lord  Southampton's  for  change  of  air."  After  the 
violent  paroxysm  he  had  undergone  and  weakness 
from  loss  of  blood,  a  few  days'  quiet  must  have  been 

1  James  Harris,  first  Earl  of  Malmesbury  (1746-1820). 


FLIGHT  51 

necessary.  He  was  probably  advised  to  let  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  rest  a  while,  and  renew  the  attack  on 
his  return  to  London.  But  his  plans  were  baffled. 
Lord  Southampton  received  the  letter  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert wrote  to  him  the  day  before  she  left  Eng- 
land, and  he  communicated  it  to  the  Prince.  We 
can  imagine  the  outburst  of  rage  and  emotion  with 
which  the  royal  lover  received  the  news.  According 
to  Lord  Holland,  "he  did  not  conceal  his  passion, 
or  his  despair  at  her  leaving  England  for  the 
Continent."1 

His  first  thought  was  to  follow  her,  but  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  had  crossed  the  Channel  before  the  news 
reached  him,  and  he  had  no  trace  of  her  hiding- 
place.  Besides,  the  heir-apparent  could  not  leave 
the  country  without  the  consent  of  the  King.  That 
consent  with  passionate  eagerness  he  now  sought  to 
obtain.  He  based  his  request  on  the  ground  of  his 
heavy  debts  and  his  wish  to  retrench.  The  King, 
who  had  heard  of  his  son's  infatuation  for  the  "  lovely 
Fitzherbert,"  did  not  accede  to  the  Prince's  prayer, 
but  he  affected  to  temporise,  and  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity to  demand  from  the  Prince  a  full  statement 
of  his  debts,  giving  him  to  understand  that  if  such  a 
statement  were  supplied  he  might  liquidate  them — 
an  understanding  which  he  had  no  intention  of 
carrying  out. 

Thus  matters  went  on  for  several  months,  the 
King  keeping  the  Prince  in  suspense,  the  Prince 
pining  to  get  away.  All  this  time  the  unfortunate 
youth,  worried  by  his  pecuniary  embarrassments,  and 

1  "Posthumous  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party,"  by  Lord  Holland, 
1852. 


52  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

distracted  by  his  apparently  hopeless  passion,  was  in 
a  state  bordering  on  unreason.  He  was  one  who 
could  not  keep  his  sorrows  to  himself.  All  his 
friends,  especially  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire  and 
Fox,  were  the  recipients  of  his  woes,  and  they 
offered  him  consolation  in  vain.  To  again  quote 
Lord  Holland  :  "  Mrs.  Fox  [then  Mrs.  Armitstead], 
who  was  living  at  St.  Anne's  [Chertsey],  has  re- 
peatedly assured  me  that  he  came  down  thither 
more  than  once  to  converse  with  her  and  Mr.  Fox 
on  the  subject,  that  he  cried  by  the  hour,  that  he 
testified  to  the  sincerity  and  violence  of  his  passion 
and  his  despair  by  the  most  extravagant  expressions 
and  actions,  rolling  on  the  floor,  striking  his  fore- 
head, tearing  his  hair,  falling  into  hystericks,  and 
swearing  that  he  would  abandon  the  country,  forego 
the  crown,  sell  his  jewels  and  plate,  and  scrape 
together  a  competence  to  fly  with  the  object  of  his 
affections  to  America." l 

This  last  must  be  regarded  as  an  exaggeration  of 
speech,  for  it  is  certain  that  the  lady  would  not  have 
fled  with  him  to  America,  even  if  he  had  been  free 
to  propose  it.  But  the  scene  goes  to  show  that  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  had  based  her  rejection  of  her  lover's 
advances  on  the  plea  of  his  position,  and  not  on 
the  ground  of  her  indifference,  or  want  of  affection. 
Her  heart  was  already  his,  and  she  was  not  follow- 
ing its  promptings,  but  considering  his  interests  in 
removing  herself  out  of  his  reach.  If  he  suffered, 
she  suffered  too.  It  was  hard  that  she  should  be 
driven  into  exile,  separated  from  her  family  and 
friends,  and  compelled  to  seek  refuge  in  an  obscure 

1  "  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party,"  op.  tit. 


FLIGHT  53 

foreign  town  like  a  fugitive  hiding  from  justice. 
She  was  fighting  a  battle  between  her  duty  and 
her  inclination.  Knowing  the  fickleness  of  men  in 
general,  and  of  princes  in  particular,  she  thought 
(though  she  did  not  in  her  heart  hope)  that  if  she 
kept  away  long  enough  her  lover  would  forget  her. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  was  notoriously  changeable, 
and  easily  attracted  by  the  "  Cynthia  of  the  minute." 
But  in  his  early  devotion  to  Maria  Fitzherbert,  in 
all  fairness  be  it  said,  he  showed  a  constancy,  a  firm- 
ness, and  a  persistency  worthy  of  all  praise,  and  not 
at  all  in  keeping  with  the  fickle  character  generally 
attributed  to  him.  There  is  no  doubt  that  his  love 
for  her  was  deep  and  genuine,  and  that  it  was  the 
great  passion  of  his  life.  She  was  in  truth  the  only 
woman  whom  he  ever  really  loved. 

Foiled  in  his  attempt  to  follow  Mrs.  Fitzherbert, 
the  Prince  set  himself  to  discover  her  hiding-place. 
In  this  he  was  more  successful.  He  despatched 
emissaries  far  and  wide,  and,  aided  by  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  he  soon  discovered  where  she  was  concealed. 
Having  once  found  her,  he  had  her  shadowed 
wherever  she  went.  Then  began  a  ceaseless  cor- 
respondence. He  wrote  to  her  pages  and  pages 
of  passionate  pleadings,  of  heartrending  appeals,  of 
prayers  for  her  aid,  of  threats  of  self-destruction 
if  she  remained  obdurate — of  everything  in  short 
that  could  touch  or  move  the  heart  of  a  susceptible 
woman.  The  Prince  could  write  admirable  letters 
when  he  wished,  no  one  better,  letters  full  of  grace 
of  phrase  and  felicity  of  diction,  and  in  these  epistles 
his  unrivalled  powers  of  persuasion  and  sophistry 
came  into  full  play.  Whether  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 


54  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

answered  his  letters  or  not,  or  how  she  answered 
them,  made  no  difference.  Whether  she  moved 
from  Paris  to  Switzerland,  or  from  Switzerland  to 
Lorraine,  she  was  still  followed  by  the  Prince's 
emissaries,  and  by  his  letters.  "Couriers  after 
couriers,"  we  are  told,  "passed  through  France 
carrying  the  letters  and  propositions  of  the  Prince 
to  her  in  France  and  Switzerland.  The  Duke  of 
Orleans  was  the  medium  of  this  correspondence. 
The  speed  of  the  couriers  exciting  the  suspicions 
of  the  French  Government,  three  of  them  were  at 
different  times  put  in  prison." l  They  were  arrested 
on  suspicion  of  being  concerned  in  some  political 
plot,  but  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  soon  able  to 
make  it  clear  that  they  were  only  the  messengers 
of  Cupid.  Otherwise  it  is  possible  that  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert  might  have  become  a  suspect  too.  Even 
the  influence  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  did  not  shield 
her  wholly  from  the  suspicion  of  political  intrigue. 
We  find,  many  years  after,  her  enemies  in  England 
declaring  "  that  she  had  been  in  correspondence 
in  France  with  the  Gros  Abbe,  the  bastard  brother 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  Abb6  Taylor  and  some 
Irish  friars  in  many  parts  of  Italy.  The  aim  of  this 
correspondence  was  said  to  be  to  harass  the  existing 
administration  (Mr.  Pitt's)  and  to  pave  the  way 
for  the  introduction  of  Catholicism  into  England."2 
These  falsehoods  were  on  the  face  of  them  absurd. 

1  Langdale,  op.  tit. 

2  "  Letter  of  Nemesis  to  Alfred,"  a  scurrilous  pamphlet  published 
circa  1789.     It  was  written  by  the  Rev.  Philip  Wither,  who  styles 
himself "  Chaplain  to  the  Dowager  Lady  Hereford,"  but  was  better 
known  as  a  writer  of  political  pamphlets.     He  was  condemned  to 
imprisonment  in  Newgate  for  gross  libel,  and  died  therein,  before  his 
term  of  imprisonment  had  expired. 


Q 
W 

W     Ei 

J     * 

w  i 
—  « 

3 


FLIGHT  55 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  the  last  woman  in  the  world 
to  proselytise  or  to  concern  herself  in  intrigues, 
political  or  ecclesiastical ;  but  to  such  imputations 
she  was  exposed  by  the  reckless  proceedings  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales. 

Excuse  may  be  found  in  the  violence  of  the 
Prince's  passion.  That  he  was  at  this  time  "  will- 
ing to  make  any  sacrifice " l  to  gain  her  is  true, 
in  substance  and  in  fact.  As  the  object  of  his 
desire  would  not  come  to  him,  his  one  wish  was 
to  go  to  her.  He  seems  to  have  had  it  in  his 
mind  to  offer  her  a  morganatic  marriage  according 
to  the  laws  of  Hanover,  and  to  live  quietly  with  her 
abroad,  perhaps  in  Hanover.  He  strove  to  over- 
come his  father's  obstinacy  by  promising  to  reform 
and  retrench  if  he  were  allowed  to  go  abroad.  But 
the  King  now  met  his  son's  demand  with  an  un- 
compromising refusal.  He  had  played  with  him 
for  months,  and  obtained  a  full  account  of  his  debts, 
except  for  one  item  which  the  Prince  said  he  was 
unable  to  account  for  in  detail,  pleading  that  it 
was  "a  debt  of  honour."  The  King  seized  upon 
this  as  an  excuse  for  refusing  to  pay  any  of  them, 
saying  that  "if  it  were  a  debt  the  Prince  was 
ashamed  to  explain  it  was  one  he  ought  not  to 
pay." 2  The  Prince,  enraged  at  this  treatment, 
thought  he  saw  in  his  father's  refusal  an  excuse 
to  escape  abroad.  The  King  dared  him  to  leave 
the  kingdom  without  his  leave,  and  even  taunted 
him,  so  the  Prince  afterwards  said,  with  his  im- 

1  Holland,  op,  tit. 

2  "Diaries  and  Correspondence  of  James   Harris,  First   Earl  of 
Malmesbury,"  1844. 


56  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

potence  to  reach  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  The  King's 
taunts  only  made  him  more  desperate. 

The  Prince  on  April  27,  1785,  sent  for  Sir  James 
Harris,  who  was  then  in  London  on  leave  of  absence, 
and  after  giving  him  an  account  of  the  King's  treat- 
ment, he  declared  that  in  the  matter  of  his  debts 
"he  saw  no  means  of  relief  left  but  by  getting 
abroad."  He  asked  Harris  about  The  Hague, 
whether  he  [the  Prince]  could  go  there  in  a  private 
character,  and  if  so  how  he,  as  the  King's  repre- 
sentative, would  receive  him.  From  this  it  would 
seem  that  the  Prince  knew  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had 
been  in  that  city,  and  thought  she  would  shortly 
be  returning  there.  But  he  did  not  once  mention 
her  name  to  Harris  in  the  curious  conversation 
that  followed,1  though  it  was  at  the  back  of  every- 
thing he  said.  To  the  Prince's  question  the  adroit 
diplomatist  replied  : — 

"  I  should  be  very  sorry,  Sir,  to  see  you  in  Holland 
otherwise  than  in  a  character  which  would  allow  me 
to  receive  you  in  a  manner  conformable  with  the 
respect  and  affection  I  bear  your  Royal  Highness  ; 
but  your  coming  abroad  without  your  having  ob- 
tained the  King's  consent  implies  that  you  will 
come  after  it  has  been  refused  you,  and,  you  may 
rest  assured,  in  that  case  I  shall  receive  orders  how 
to  act  towards  you  before  your  arrival ;  and  those 
orders,  let  them  be  ever  so  much  in  contradiction  to 
my  feelings,  I  must  obey. 

"  Prince.  Certainly.     I  should  be  the  last  person 

1  The  conversation  is  quoted  in  full,  only  abbreviating  some  of  the 
speeches  of  the  pompous  Harris  which  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
case.  Those  who  wish  to  read  it  in  full  will  find  it  in  the  "  Malmesbury 
Diaries." 


FLIGHT  57 

to  wish  you  to  do  otherwise.  But  what  am  I  to  do  ? 
Am  I  to  be  refused  the  right  of  every  individual  ? 
Cannot  I  travel  legally,  as  a  private  man,  without 
the  King's  consent? 

"Harris.  I  think  it  very  immaterial  for  your 
Royal  Highness  to  know  whether  you  can,  or  can- 
not, legally  travel  without  His  Majesty's  consent ; 
since  it  is  evident  that  you  cannot  with  any  pro- 
priety to  the  public,  or  satisfaction  to  yourself,  cross 
the  seas  without  it. 

"  Prince.  Why  not  ?  I  wish  to  travel  on  a  plan 
of  economy  ;  to  be  unknown  ;  to  live  in  retirement. 

"Harris.  Without  entering  into  the  almost  im- 
possibility of  your  Royal  Highness  making  so 
rapid  a  transition  in  your  ways  of  life,  I  confess  I 
see  no  event  would  give  me  so  much  pain,  as  an 
Englishman,  as  to  see  a  Prince  of  Wales  abroad 
under  such  a  description.  .  .  . 

"  Prince.  I  feel  what  you  say  :  but  what  can  I  do  ? 
The  King  proposed  to  me  to  lay  by  ;£  10,000  a  year 
to  pay  my  debts,  at  a  time  when,  with  the  strictest 
economy,  my  expenses  are  twice  my  income.  I 
am  ruined  if  I  stay  in  England.  I  disgrace  myself 
as  a  man. 

"Harris.  Your  Royal  Highness,  give  me  leave 
to  say,  will  find  no  relief  in  travelling  the  way  you 
propose.  You  will  be  either  slighted,  or,  what  is 
worse,  become  the  object  of  political  intrigue  at 
every  court  you  pass  through.  .  .  . 

"Prince.  But  if  I  avoid  all  great  courts?  If  I 
keep  to  the  smaller  ones  of  Germany,  can  this 
happen  ?  I  may  there  live  unnoticed  and  unknown. 

"Harris.   Impossible,  Sir.     The  title  of  the  Earl 


58  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

of  Chester  will  be  only  a  mask  which  covers  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  and,  as  such,  your  actions  will 
ever  be  judged.  .  .  . 

"  Prince.  You  think  I  mean  to  go  to  F ranee.  I 
shall  keep  to  the  Empire,  and  perhaps  to  Italy. 

"  Harris.  What  I  say  applies  to  all  countries, 
Sir.  .  .  . 

"  Prince.  But  what  can  I  do,  my  dear  Harris  ? 
The  King  hates  me.  He  wants  to  set  me  at  variance 
with  my  brother.  I  have  no  hopes  from  him.  He 
won't  let  even  Parliament  assist  me  till  I  marry. 

"  Harris.  But  there  exists  so  cordial  an  affection 
between  your  Royal  Highness  and  the  Duke  of 
York,  that  I  should  think  he  might  be  employed 
most  usefully  to  reconcile  the  King  to  your  Royal 
Highness.  It  cannot  be  a  difficult  task  when 
undertaken  by  a  brother. 

"  Prince.  If  he  thought  it  possible,  he  would  come 
over  [from  Hanover]  immediately.  He  has  often 
expressed  his  concern  at  our  disunion,  and  declares 
he  never  will  leave  the  Continent  till  he  can  see  a 
prospect  of  bringing  the  King  to  enter  into  my 
situation. 

"  Harris.  Surely,  Sir,  the  King  could  not  object  to 
any  increase  of  income  Parliament  thought  proper 
to  allow  your  Royal  Highness? 

"  Prince.  I  believe  he  would.  He  hates  me;  he 
always  did,  from  seven  years  old. 

"Harris.  His  Majesty  may  be  displeased  and 
dissatisfied  with  your  Royal  Highness,  but  surely 
he  cannot  hate  you ;  and  I  am  convinced  nothing 
would  make  both  him  and  the  Queen  so  happy  as 
to  restore  their  affections  to  you.  It  would  be  the 


FLIGHT  59 

greatest  blessing  to  the  nation,  and  the  greatest 
comfort  to  the  Royal  Family. 

"Prince.  It  may  be  so,  but  it  cannot  be.  We 
are  too  wide  asunder  ever  to  meet.  The  King  has 
deceived  me,  he  has  made  me  deceive  others ;  I 
cannot  trust  him,  and  he  will  never  believe  me. 

"  Harris.  I  am  sorry  your  Royal  Highness  thinks 
so.  But  I  think  your  Royal  Highness  should  try 
every  possible  means  before  you  carry  into  execution 
your  plan  of  travelling. 

"  Prince.  I  will  think  it  over,  but  I  see  no  obstacle. 
We  will  meet  again  soon." l 

After  this  conversation,  Harris,  who  was  hon- 
oured with  the  confidence  both  of  the  father  and 
the  son,  tried  hard  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between 
them,  and  to  induce  the  King  to  settle  the  Prince's 
debts,  but  he  underrated  the  strength  of  the  cross 
currents  of  personal  hatred  and  political  intrigue. 
Pitt,  the  Prime  Minister,  who  felt  that  some  of 
the  money  would  be  spent  on  political  purposes 
against  the  Government,  refused  to  do  anything 
for  the  Prince  of  Wales,  unless  he  would  first 
break  with  Fox  and  the  Opposition.  In  this 
attitude  he  was  supported,  if  not  instigated,  by 
the  King,  who  added  to  his  hatred  of  the  Whigs, 
jealousy  of  his  eldest  son.  The  Prince  knew  that 
he  could  never  satisfy  his  father,  do  what  he  would, 
and  he  refused  to  sacrifice  his  friends,  and  humiliate 
himself  in  vain.  Harris,  who  was  still  sanguine 
that  he  could  arrange  matters,  on  the  strength  of 
certain  vague  assurances  which  he  had  received 

1  "  Malmesbury  Diaries " :  My  First  Conference  with  the  Prince 
of  Wales. 


60  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

from  the  King,  requested  another  interview  with 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  which  was  granted. 

During  the  month  which  had  elapsed  since  his  last 
conversation  with  Harris  a  change  had  come  over  the 
Prince.  Perhaps  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  written  to 
him,  refusing  to  listen  to  him  if  he  came  abroad, 
entreating  him  for  his  own  sake  not  to  come. 
Or  perhaps  she  even  held  out  the  hope  if  he  would 
hearken  to  her  counsels  she  would  return  to  Eng- 
land. Something,  it  is  impossible  to  say  what, 
must  have  passed  between  them  in  the  interval, 
above  and  beyond  the  remonstrances  of  the  Prince's 
friends,  for  when,  by  appointment,  on  May  23, 
Harris  entered  the  Prince's  dressing  -  room  at 
Carlton  House  for  a  second  interview,  he  was 
greeted  with  these  words  : l — 

"Prince.  If  you  are  come,  my  dear  Harris,  to 
dissuade  me  again  from  travelling,  let  me  anticipate 
your  kind  intentions  by  telling  you  I  have  dismissed 
that  idea  from  my  mind.  I  see  all  my  other  friends, 
as  well  as  yourself,  are  against  it,  and  I  subscribe  to 
their  opinion. 

"Harris.  I  should  not  have  presumed  to  have 
mentioned  that  subject  again  to  your  Royal  High- 
ness ;  but  after  what  you  have  told  me,  Sir,  allow 
me  to  express  my  infinite  satisfaction. 

"Prince.  I  am  glad  to  have  pleased  you,  at  least, 
if  I  have  not  pleased  myself.  Yet  I  am  sure  you 
will  be  concerned  to  see  the  distressed  and  unbe- 
coming light  in  which  I  must  appear  by  remaining 
in  England. 

1  The  following  conversation  is  also  abridged  so  far  as  Sir  James 
Harris  is  concerned. 


FLIGHT  6 1 

"Harris.  This  had  better  appear  here  (admitting 
it  to  be  the  case)  than  to  strangers.  But,  Sir,  the 
purport  of  my  troubling  your  Royal  Highness  was 
to  obviate  this  unpleasant  circumstance." 

Harris  then  proceeded  to  propound  his  scheme 
for  the  settlement  of  the  Prince's  debts,  which,  as  it 
came  to  nothing,  it  is  unnecessary  to  detail  here. 
The  Prince  listened  in  silence,  and  then  said  : — 

"  I  thank  you  ;  but  it  will  not  do.  I  tell  you  the 
King  hates  me.  He  would  turn  out  Pitt  for  enter- 
taining such  an  idea ;  besides,  I  cannot  abandon 
Charles  and  my  friends. 

"  Harris.  Mr.  Fox  and  the  Duke  of  Portland  have 
told  me  often,  Sir,  that  they  by  no  means  wish  your 
Royal  Highness  to  condescend,  on  their  account,  to 
take  any  share  in  party  concerns.  They  have  re- 
peatedly declared  that  a  Prince  of  Wales  ought  to 
be  of  no  party. 

"  Prince.  Well,  but  admitting  this,  and  supposing 
that  I  can  get  rid  of  a  partiality  in  politics  you  seem 
to  condemn,  I  tell  you,  Harris,  the  King  never  will 
listen  to  it. 

"Harris.  But,  Sir,  I  presuppose  a  reconciliation 
between  you  and  His  Majesty.  Surely  this  would 
be  grateful  to  the  King  himself,  and  most  par- 
ticularly so  to  the  Queen. 

"Prince.  Why,  my  dear  Harris,  will  you  force  me 
to  repeat  to  you  that  the  King  hates  me  f  He  will 
never  be  reconciled  to  me. 

"Harris.  It  cannot  be,  Sir.  If  you  order  me,  I 
will  ask  an  audience  of  him,  and  fling  myself  at 
his  feet. 

"  Prince.  I  love  you  too  well  to  encourage  you  to 


62  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

undertake  so  useless  a  commission.  If  you  will  not 
credit  me,  you  will,  perhaps,  credit  the  King  him- 
self. Take  and  read  all  our  correspondence  for 
these  last  six  months. 

"  The  Prince  here  opened  an  escritoire,  and  took 
out  a  large  bundle  of  papers,  which  he  read  to  me. 
It  consisted  of  various  letters  which  had  passed 
between  him  and  the  King,  beginning  with  the  one 
in  which  he  asked  his  leave  to  go  abroad  in  autumn 
1784. 

"It  is  needless  to  attempt  to  relate  precisely  the 
contents  of  this  correspondence ;  it  is  sufficient  to 
observe  that  the  Prince's  letters  were  full  of  respect 
and  deference,  written  with  great  plainness  of  style 
and  simplicity.  Those  of  the  King  were  also  well 
written,  but  harsh  and  severe ;  constantly  refusing 
every  request  the  Prince  made,  and  reprobating  in 
each  of  them  his  extravagance  and  dissipated  man- 
ner of  living.  They  were  void  of  every  expression 
of  parental  kindness  or  affection ;  and,  after  both 
hearing  them  read,  and  perusing  them  myself,  I  was 
compelled  to  subscribe  to  the  Prince's  opinion,  and 
to  confess  there  was  very  little  appearance  of  making 
any  impression  on  His  Majesty  in  favour  of  His 
Royal  Highness.  I  resumed,  however,  the  con- 
versation as  follows : — 

"  Harris.  I  am  hurt  to  a  degree,  Sir,  at  what  I 
have  read.  But  still,  Sir,  the  Queen  must  have  a 
reconciliation  so  much  at  heart,  that,  through  her 
and  your  sisters,  it  surely  might  be  effected. 

"  Prince.  Look  ye,  Harris  ;  I  cannot  bring  myself 
to  say  I  am  in  the  wrong  when  I  am  in  the  right. 
The  King  has  used  me  ill ;  and  I  wish  the  public 


FLIGHT  63 

knew  what  you  now  know,  and  was  to  pronounce 
between  us. 

"Harris.  I  should  be  very  sorry,  indeed,  Sir,  if 
this  was  known  beyond  these  walls ;  for  I  am  much 
mistaken  if  the  public  would  not  pronounce  a  judg- 
ment widely  different  from  that  you  think. 

"Prince.  This  is  a  cruel  truth,  if  it  be  true  what 
you  say ;  but  it  is  of  no  use  to  investigate  it ;  my 
case  never  will  go  to  that  tribunal. 

"  Harris.  May  I  suggest,  Sir,  the  idea  of  your 
marrying?  It  would,  I  should  think,  be  most 
agreeable  to  the  King,  and,  I  am  certain,  most 
grateful  to  the  nation. 

"Prince  (with  vehemence}.  I  never  will  marry! 
My  resolution  is  taken  on  that  subject.  I  have 
settled  it  with  Frederick.  No,  I  never  will  marry ! 

"Harris.  Give  me  leave  to  say,  Sir,  most  respect- 
fully, that  you  cannot  have  really  come  to  such  a 
resolution  ;  and  you  must  marry,  Sir.  You  owe  it 
to  the  country,  to  the  King,  to  yourself. 

"Prince.  I  owe  nothing  to  the  King.  Frederick 
will  marry,  and  the  crown  will  descend  to  his 
children ;  and  as  for  myself,  I  do  not  see  how  it 
affects  me. 

"Harris.  Till  you  are  married,  Sir,  and  have 
children,  you  have  no  solid  hold  on  the  affections 
of  the  people,  even  while  you  are  Prince  of  Wales  ; 
but  if  you  come  to  the  throne  a  bachelor,  and  His 
Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  York  is  married,  and 
has  sons  to  succeed  you,  your  situation,  when  King, 
will  be  more  painful  than  it  is  at  this  moment.  Our 
own  history  furnishes  strong  examples  of  the  truth 
of  what  I  say. 


64  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

"The  Prince  was  greatly  struck  with  this  obser- 
vation. He  walked  about  the  room,  apparently 
angry.  I  moved  towards  the  door,  saying,  '  I  per- 
ceive, Sir,  I  have  said  too  much :  you  will  allow 
me  to  withdraw.  I  am  sure  I  shall  be  forgiven  an 
hour  hence.' 

"Prince.  You  are  forgiven  now,  my  dear  Harris. 
I  am  angry  with  myself,  not  with  you.  Don't 
question  me  any  more.  I  will  think  of  what  you 
said.  Adieu.  God  bless  you."1 

The  most  remarkable  passage  in  this  conversa- 
tion was  the  Prince's  vehement  declaration  that  he 
would  never  marry,  and  that  he  had  "  settled  it  with 
Frederick."  By  this  he  meant  that  he  would  never 
make  a  marriage  of  policy  after  the  manner  of 
princes,  or  a  marriage  in  accordance  with  the  terms 
of  his  father's  recently  passed  Royal  Marriage  Act, 
and  he  made  this  declaration,  be  it  noted,  at  a  time 
when  not  only  the  King  and  the  Government,  but 
also  his  political  and  personal  friends,  were  agreed 
in  urging  him  to  contract  such  an  alliance.  His 
declaration  shows  that  he  had  by  this  time  fully 
determined  to  offer  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  such  a  marriage 
as  it  was  in  his  power  to  offer  her — a  marriage  which 
the  law  of  England  would  treat  as  illegal,  and  which 
in  Hanover  would  be  regarded  as  morganatic — that 
is  to  say,  though  recognised  as  a  marriage,  it  would 
not  give  the  wife  the  rank  of  her  husband.2  The 
Prince  had  this  in  mind  when  he  said  "  Frederick 
will  marry,  and  the  crown  will  descend  to  his 

1  "  Malmesbury  Diaries":  My  Second  Conference  with  the  Prince 
of  Wales. 

2  Such  a  marriage  was  that  of  his  ancestor,  Duke  George  William 
of  Celle,  with  Eleanore  d'Olbreuse,  mother  of  Sophia  Dorothea. 


FLIGHT  65 

children,"  for  he  knew  that  if  he  had  any  children  by 
his  contemplated  marriage  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert, 
they  would  be  deemed  incapable  of  succeeding  to 
the  throne  of  England,  and  would  be  treated  as 
infantes  nullius,  or  dead  in  law.1 

Harris  did  not  realise  the  full  force  of  the  Prince's 
words  at  the  time.  He  was  astonished  at  the 
summary  rejection  of  his  well-meant  efforts  ;  but 
later,  when  the  rumour  of  the  Prince's  marriage  to 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  reached  his  ears,  it  became  clear 
to  him  that  the  idea  was  in  the  Prince's  mind  when 
he  spoke  with  him,  and  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was 
"the  great  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  accepting 
my  proposal."2 

All  this  time  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  remained  in 
Lorraine,  shadowed  by  the  Prince's  spies,  and  the 
recipient  of  his  continued  letters.  Still  she  tried, 
with  a  force  ever  growing  feebler,  to  fight  off  his 
assault.  But  she  was  getting  tired  of  her  self- 
imposed  exile,  and  presently  an  incident  occurred 
which  convinced  her  that  it  was  impossible  for  this 
state  of  affairs  to  continue  indefinitely. 

Despite  the  strict  retirement  in  which  she  lived  she 
became  the  object  of  the  attentions  of  the  notorious 
Marquis  de  Bellois,  who  offered  her  marriage. 
The  Marquis  was  one  of  the  handsomest  men  in 
France,  and  one  of  the  most  polished  and  accom- 
plished scoundrels  in  Europe.  The  young  English 

1  What  their  claims  might  have  been  to  the  crown  of  Hanover  need 
not  be  discussed  here,  as  none  were  born. 

3  The  Prince  wrote  later  (1799)  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  that  Harris  had 
been  informed  by  him  "  of  every,  even  the  minutest,  circumstance  of 
our  marriage." 

VOL.    I  E 


66  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

widow,  beautiful,  well-connected  and  well-dowered, 
was  a  fair  mark  for  a  needy  French  nobleman.  She 
refused  him  in  the  most  uncompromising  manner, 
and  when,  despite  her  refusal,  he  continued  to  urge 
his  suit,  she  left  Plombiers  for  Paris.  She  had  fled 
from  England  to  protect  her  reputation,  but  this 
affair  showed  her  that  she  had  only  escaped  one 
danger  to  encounter  another.  She  was  too  young 
and  too  beautiful  a  woman  to  continue  to  live  alone 
and  unprotected  in  a  foreign  country,  away  from  her 
family  and  her  friends.  That  she  had  lived  abroad 
all  these  months,  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  of 
secrecy,  was  no  fault  of  her  own,  but  it  served  to 
whet  the  tongue  of  scandal.  Why  all  this  mystery, 
people  asked,  unless  there  was  something  wrong  ? 
She  had  done  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of,  yet  she 
could  not  explain  her  position  without  compromising 
others.  Besides,  her  explanation  would  be  received 
with  scornful  incredulity  by  the  gay  world  of  Paris 
and  of  London,  who  would  neither  understand  nor 
respect  her  scruples.  Moreover,  she  was  of  a 
temperament  which  could  not  bear  to  live  alone. 
Though  not  devoted  to  pleasure,  she  was  fond  of 
society  and  amusement,  and  enjoyed  the  companion- 
ship of  her  friends.  She  reflected  also  that,  so  far, 
her  object  in  going  abroad  had  signally  failed,  for 
time  and  distance  only  seemed  to  make  the  Prince 
more  eager.  Herein  may  be  found  the  first  hint  of 
her  yielding. 

It  is  impossible  to  sketch  accurately  the  combina- 
tion of  circumstances  by  which,  little  by  little,  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert's  resistance  was  beaten  down.  She  be- 
gan to  hesitate,  and  hesitating  was  lost.  "  Wrought 


FLIGHT  67 

upon  and  fearful,"  she  was  first  "induced  to  promise 
formally  and  deliberately  that  she  would  never  marry 
any  other  person."  l  From  promising  to  marry  no 
one  but  the  Prince,  to  promising  to  marry  him  was 
only  a  step.  But  before  taking  it  she  stipulated 
for  conditions  which  would  satisfy  her  conscience. 
The  Prince,  who  had  no  conscience  at  all  where  his 
desires  were  concerned,  was  willing  to  grant  her 
everything  in  his  power.  She  had  not  been  satisfied 
with  the  grotesque  ceremony  at  Carlton  House,  then 
he  would  offer  her  a  real  marriage,  as  real  as  he 
could  make  it,  one  that  would  satisfy  her  scruples 
and  meet  the  requirements  of  her  Church.  More 
than  that  she  did  not  ask,  and  more  than  that  he 
could  not  give,  for  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  lay 
athwart  their  path.  She  knew  of  this  Act  as  well 
as  he,  and  with  him  was  willing  to  risk  the  danger 
of  violating  it,  but  still  she  hesitated.  She  was  un- 
willing to  encourage  this  prodigal  son  into  a  flagrant 
act  of  disobedience  to  the  wishes  of  his  father.  The 
Prince  was  ready  to  meet  this  scruple,  as  he  had 
met  the  others,  by  his  sophistry  which  never  failed. 
In  a  letter  of  abnormal  length  (thirty-seven  pages),2 
for  he  was  always  a  man  of  many  words,  he  assured 
her  that  "his  father  would  connive  at  the  union." 
This  of  course  was  not  true,  but  perhaps  the  Prince 
persuaded  himself  that  it  was,  for  he  had  extra- 
ordinary powers  of  self-deception.  It  is  impossible 
to  believe  that  the  King  would  have  connived  at  the 
violation  of  the  Act  which  he  had  forced  through 

1  Langdale,  op.  cit. 

2  Lord  Stourton  says  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  showed  him  this  letter 
"  entirely  in  the  handwriting  of  the  Prince." 


68  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Parliament  only  thirteen  years  before,  framed  to 
prevent  just  such  a  marriage  as  this.  He  was  a 
conscientious  man,  and  would  not  have  thus 
stultified  himself.  But  with  the  Prince  of  Wales  it 
was  a  settled  conviction  that  his  father  hated  him, 
and  would  gladly  have  seen  him  supplanted  by  his 
younger  brother,  the  Duke  of  York.  "  I  have 
settled  it  all  with  Frederick,"  he  told  Harris ; 
"  Frederick  will  marry,  and  the  crown  will  descend 
to  his  children."  The  Prince  may  have  thought 
that  the  King  would  wink  at  his  irregular  and  mor- 
ganatic marriage  in  order  to  bring  about  such  a 
consummation. 

But  whether  the  Prince  believed  what  he  wrote  or 
not,  his  word  was  all-sufficient  for  Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 
The  time  had  not  come  when  she  had  learned  to 
lament  his  fatal  disregard  of  truth.  She  believed 
implicitly  all  he  told  her,  and  all  his  promises  and 
vows.  She  could  no  longer  doubt  the  sincerity  of 
his  love.  He  had  endured  a  long  and  cruel  proba- 
tion ;  she  had  kept  away  from  him,  and  had  resisted 
all  his  prayers  and  importunities,  for  more  than  a 
year,  and  yet  at  the  end  of  the  period  his  love  for 
her  was  unchanged.  He  had  answers  for  all  her 
objections,  he  granted  all  her  stipulations,  he  was 
willing  to  risk  everything  for  her  sake.  She  could 
not  change  her  religion,  and  therefore  the  Prince 
by  marrying  a  Roman  Catholic  (even  though  the 
marriage  might  be  illegal),  ran  the  risk  of  forfeit- 
ing his  right  of  succession  to  the  crown.1  It  was 
said  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  did  not  realise  this 

1  Section  IX.  of  the  Act  of  Settlement,  1889. 


FLIGHT  69 

until  later,  but  she  knew,  none  better,  the  strong 
prejudice  against  Roman  Catholics  in  England. 
She  knew,  too,  how  much  the  Prince  would  damage 
his  popularity  by  allying  himself  intimately  with 
one  of  her  faith,  even  though  the  connection  were 
to  the  world  not  an  honourable  one.  How  much 
greater,  then,  would  be  the  outcry  if  their  secret 
marriage  ever  became  known  ?  It  was  largely  for 
this  reason  that  she  had  withstood  him  so  long ; 
but  since  he  was  willing  to  take  the  risk  for  her 
sake,  she  was  not  the  woman  to  deny  him  from 
fear  of  the  consequences  to  herself.  And  so,  at 
last,  worn  out  with  his  pleading,  and  moved  by 
the  chivalry  of  his  devotion,  she  threw  down 
her  arms,  and  promised  to  return  to  England 
and  become  his  wife.  It  was  no  hasty,  ill-con- 
sidered action,  for  she  saw,  we  are  told,  "clearly 
and  justly  that  she  was  about  to  plunge  into 
inextricable  difficulties ;  but  having  insisted  upon 
conditions,  such  as  would  satisfy  her  conscience 
and  justify  her  in  the  eyes  of  her  own  Church, 
she  abandoned  herself  to  her  fate."1  Once  she 
surrendered  she  knew  no  half  measures ;  she 
might  have  extracted  any  terms  she  pleased 
from  the  infatuated  Prince,  but  with  a  rare  disin- 
terestedness, she  asked  for  nothing  beyond  the  one 
condition  demanded  by  her  conscience  and  her 
Church.  She  left  everything  else  to  the  honour 
of  the  man  to  whom  she  was  henceforth  to  devote 
her  life. 

It  will  always  be  an  enigma  what  induced  a  woman 

1  Langdale,  op,  tit. 


yo  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  temperament  and  character  to 
yield  at  the  last.  What  led  this  pure  and  proud 
woman,  with  her  definite  ideas  of  right  and  wrong, 
to  consent  to  an  act  which,  if  not  wrong  in  itself,  was 
at  least  capable  of  wrongful  interpretation?  But 
one  thing  at  least  is  clear.  Her  motives  were  not 
interested.  Perhaps  she  persuaded  herself  that  she 
must  make  the  sacrifice  for  his  sake ;  perhaps  she 
deluded  herself  that  she  was  necessary  to  him — this 
headstrong,  passionate,  lovable  youth,  whose  faults 
appeared  to  be  all  on  the  surface,  and  who  was 
his  own  worst  enemy.  Perhaps  she  conceived 
it  was  her  mission  to  rescue  him  from  his 
evil  advisers,  and  make  him  worthy  of  the  high 
position  which  he  was  one  day  destined  to  fill. 
It  may  be,  too,  that  her  heart  now  spoke  for  the 
first  time.  She  had  been  twice  married  before  to 
men  years  older  than  herself,  and  these  marriages 
were  probably  arranged  for  her  by  others ;  the 
union  she  now  contemplated  was  not  a  marriage 
of  convenience  but  of  pure  romance.  There  were 
in  this  adventure  all  the  elements  of  romance, 
of  secrecy,  and  of  danger.  A  Prince,  young  and 
handsome  as  an  Apollo,  a  lover  passionate  and 
ardent,  laid  his  heart  at  her  feet.  She  would 
have  been  less  than  a  woman  had  she  spurned  it. 
She  was  weary  of  her  self-imposed  exile,  weary  of 
the  loneliness  of  her  life.  There  had  come  to  her 
that  hunger  that  comes  sooner  or  later  to  every  man 
and  woman,  the  desire  to  take  happiness  with  both 
hands,  and  count  the  world  well  lost — the  desire  to 
know,  even  though  it  be  for  one  brief  hour,  the 


FLIGHT  71 

heart  of  life.  And  this  it  may  be  claimed  for  Maria 
Fitzherbert,  that  despite  all  the  suffering  and  dis- 
appointment of  after  years  she  at  least  had  her 
hour. 

Thus  it  follows  that,  after  all,  the  simplest  ex- 
planation of  her  yielding  is  the  truest.  She  yielded 
because  she  loved  him. 


CHAPTER    V 
SURRENDER 

(1785) 

MRS.  FITZHERBERT  returned  to  England  the  first 
week  of  December  1785,  after  an  exile  of  more 
than  a  year's  duration.  She  travelled  through  to 
London,  and  went  to  her  house  in  Park  Street.  It 
is  said,  on  questionable  authority,  that  the  Prince 
of  Wales  went  to  Paris  incognito  and  had  an 
interview  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  with  the  result 
that  she  consented  to  accompany  him  back  to 
England.1  It  is  unlikely  that  this  took  place, 
but  it  is  probable  that  he  went  down  to  Dover 
to  meet  her,  and  escorted  her  to  London,  which 
would  account  for  the  rumour.  Care  was  taken 
to  prevent  her  return  becoming  known,  but 
before  long  every  one  interested  knew  that  she 
had  come  back.  The  Prince's  household  sus- 
pected that  something  unusual  was  taking  place. 
There  was  an  air  of  suppressed  excitement  about 
everything  the  Prince  said  and  did  which  could  not 
pass  unnoticed,  and  when  it  became  known  that 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  returned  from  abroad,  all  in 
his  immediate  service  felt  that  the  state  of  uncer- 

1  Another  rumour  was  that  he  had  crossed  from  Brighton  to 
Dieppe  in  the  summer.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  met  him  there,  and  he  had 
come  to  an  arrangement  with  her  then. 


GEORGE,   1'RINGE   OF   WALES,    AS   "FLORIZEL" 
(After  the  Fainting  by  GEORGE  COSWAY,  R.A.) 


SURRENDER  73 

tainty  and  unrest  in  which  he  had  lived  for  the  last 
year  was  nearing  its  end.  There  was  not  one  of 
the  Prince's  real  friends  who  did  not  contemplate 
with  alarm  the  possibility  of  such  a  marriage,  but 
the  Prince  was  surrounded  by  parasites  and  flat- 
terers, who  were  ready  to  aid  and  abet  him  on 
a  course  imprudent  for  himself  and  disastrous 
for  the  woman  he  loved.  Others  there  were  of 
his  boon  companions,  reckless  young  "bloods," 
ever  ready  for  an  affair  of  gallantry,  who,  seeing 
that  he  was  not  to  be  dissuaded,  fell  in  with  his 
mood. 

The  Prince  was  not  one  who  could  keep  a  secret, 
and  in  this  case  he  had  to  take  two  or  three  persons 
into  his  confidence,  in  order  to  make  arrangements 
for  his  marriage.  Though  silence  is  a  word  written 
large  over  the  gates  of  palaces,  a  secret  which  is 
known  to  two  or  three  persons  is  soon  a  secret  no 
longer.  It  is  probable  that  some  well-wisher  of  the 
Prince,  who  was  in  his  confidence,  so  far  betrayed 
him  as  to  communicate  with  Fox,  and  urge  him  to  do 
what  he  could  to  persuade  the  Prince  from  marrying 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  Fox  was  one  of  the  first  to  hear 
of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  arrival  in  London,  and  he 
regarded  the  news  as  serious.  He  knew  from  the 
Prince  himself  of  his  reckless  passion  and  her  pro- 
longed resistance,  and  he  felt  that  she  would  not 
have  returned  to  England  unless  a  way  had  been 
found  to  overcome  her  scruples.  Moreover,  the 
fact  that  the  Prince  had  lately  avoided  him 
lent  weight  to  his  suspicions,  that  marriage  and 
nothing  else  was  in  the  Prince's  mind.  He 
resolved  to  make  an  effort  to  prevent  such  an 


74  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

act  of  folly,  and  without  delay  wrote  the  following 
letter  :— 

The  Right  Hon.  C.  J.  Fox,  M.P.,  to  H.R.H. 
the  Prince  of  Wales. 

"Dec.  10, 1785. 

"SiR, — I  hope  that  your  Royal  Highness  does 
me  the  justice  to  believe  that  it  is  with  the  utmost 
reluctance  that  I  trouble  you  with  my  opinion  un- 
asked at  any  time,  much  more  so  upon  a  subject 
where  it  may  not  be  agreeable  to  your  wishes.  I 
am  sure  that  nothing  could  ever  make  me  take 
this  liberty,  but  the  condescension  which  you  have 
honoured  me  with  upon  so  many  occasions,  and  the 
zealous  and  grateful  attachment  that  I  feel  for  your 
Royal  Highness,  and  which  makes  me  run  the  risk 
even  of  displeasing  you  for  the  purpose  of  doing 
you  a  real  service. 

"  I  was  told  just  before  I  left  town  yesterday, 
that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  arrived ;  and  if  I  had 
heard  only  this,  I  should  have  felt  most  unfeigned 
joy  at  an  event  which  I  knew  would  contribute  so 
much  to  your  Royal  Highness's  satisfaction ;  but  I 
was  told  at  the  same  time,  that  from  a  variety  of 
circumstances  which  had  been  observed  and  put 
together,  there  was  reason  to  suppose  that  you  were 
going  to  take  the  very  desperate  step  (pardon  the 
expression)  of  marrying  her  at  this  moment.  If 
such  an  idea  be  really  in  your  mind,  and  it  be  not 
now  too  late,  for  God's  sake  let  me  call  your  atten- 
tion to  some  considerations,  which  my  attachment 
to  your  Royal  Highness,  and  the  real  concern 
which  I  take  in  whatever  relates  to  your  interest, 


SURRENDER  75 

have  suggested  to  me,  and  which  may  possibly  have 
the  more  weight  with  you  when  you  perceive  that 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  is  equally  interested  in  most  of 
them  with  yourself. 

"  In  the  first  place,  you  are  aware  that  a  marriage 
with  a  Catholic  throws  the  Prince  contracting  such 
a  marriage  out  of  the  succession  of  the  Crown.1 
Now,  what  change  may  have  happened  in  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert's  sentiments  upon  religious  matters  I 
know  not ;  but  I  do  not  understand  that  any  public 
profession  of  change  has  been  made :  and  surely, 
Sir,  this  is  not  a  matter  to  be  trifled  with ;  and  your 
Royal  Highness  must  excuse  the  extreme  freedom 
with  which  I  write.  If  there  should  be  a  doubt 
about  her  previous  conversion,2  consider  the  circum- 
stances in  which  you  stand  ;  he  King  not  feeling 
for  you  as  a  father  ought,  the  Duke  of  York  pro- 
fessedly his  favourite,  and  likely  to  be  married 
agreeably  to  the  King's  wishes ;  the  nation  full 
of  its  old  prejudices  against  Catholicks,  and  justly 
dreading  all  disputes  about  succession.  In  all  these 
circumstances  your  enemies  might  take  such  advan- 
tage as  I  shudder  to  think  of;  and  though  your 
generosity  might  think  no  sacrifice  too  great  to  be 
made  to  a  person  whom  you  love  so  entirely,  con- 
sider what  her  reflections  must  be  in  such  an  event, 
and  how  impossible  it  would  be  for  her  ever  to  for- 
give herself. 

"  I  have  stated  this  danger  upon  the  supposition 

1  Vide  Section  IX.  of  the  Act  of  1689.    "An  Act  for  declaring  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  the  subject,  and  settling  the  succession  to  the 
Crown." 

2  i.e.  to  the  Church  of  England.     But  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  not 
been  "  converted." 


76  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

that  the  marriage  would  be  a  real  one  ;  but  your 
Royal  Highness  knows  as  well  as  I,  that  according 
to  the  present  laws  of  the  country  it  cannot ; l  and  I 
need  not  point  out  to  your  good  sense  what  a  source 
of  uneasiness  it  must  be  to  you,  to  her,  and  above 
all  to  the  nation,  to  have  it  a  matter  of  dispute  and 
discussion,  whether  the  Prince  of  Wales  is,  or  is  not, 
married.  All  speculations  on  the  feelings  of  the 
publick  are  uncertain  ;  but  I  doubt  much  whether  an 
uncertainty  of  this  kind,  by  keeping  men's  minds  in 
perpetual  agitation  upon  a  matter  of  this  moment, 
might  not  cause  a  greater  ferment  than  any  other 
possible  situation.  If  there  should  be  children  from 
the  marriage,  I  need  not  say  how  much  the  uneasi- 
ness (as  well  of  yourselves  as  of  the  nation)  must 
be  aggravated.  If  anything  could  add  to  the  weight 
of  these  considerations,  it  is  the  impossibility  of 
remedying  the  mischiefs  I  have  alluded  to ;  for  if 
your  Royal  Highness  should  think  proper,  when 
you  are  twenty-five  years  old,  to  notify  to  Parlia- 
ment your  intention  to  marry  (by  which  means  alone 
a  legal  marriage  can  be  contracted),  in  what  manner 
can  it  be  notified?  If  the  previous  marriage  is 
mentioned  or  owned,  will  it  not  be  said  that  you 
have  set  at  defiance  the  laws  of  your  country ;  and 
that  you  now  come  to  Parliament  for  a  sanction  for 
what  you  have  already  done  in  contempt  of  it  ?  If 
there  are  children,  will  it  not  be  said  that  we  must 
look  for  future  applications  to  legitimate  them,  and 
consequently  be  liable  to  disputes  for  the  succession 

1  Fox  here  alludes  to  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  of  1772,  which 
prevented  the  Prince  from  marrying  before  the  age  of  twenty-five 
without  the  consent  of  the  King. 


SURRENDER  77 

between  the  eldest  son,  and  the  eldest  son  after  the 
legal  marriage  ?  And  will  not  the  entire  annulling 
of  the  whole  marriage  be  suggested  as  the  most 
secure  way  of  preventing  all  such  disputes  ?  If  the 
marriage  is  not  mentioned  to  Parliament,  but  yet  is 
known  to  have  been  solemnised,  as  it  certainly  will 
be  known,  if  it  takes  place,  these  are  the  con- 
sequences— First,  that  at  all  events  any  child  born 
in  the  interim  is  immediately  illegitimated ;  and 
next,  that  arguments  will  be  drawn  from  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  concealed  mafriage  against  the 
publick  one.  It  will  be  said,  that  a  woman  who 
has  lived  with  you  as  your  wife  without  being  so, 
is  not  fit  to  be  Queen  of  England ; l  and  thus  the 
very  thing  that  is  done  for  the  sake  of  her  re- 
putation will  be  used  against  it :  and  what  would 
make  this  worse  would  be,  the  marriage  being 
known  (though  not  officially  communicated  to  Par- 
liament), it  would  be  impossible  to  deny  the  asser- 
tion ;  whereas,  if  there  was  no  marriage,  I  conclude 
your  intercourse  would  be  carried  on  as  it  ought, 
in  so  private  a  way  as  to  make  it  wholly  inconsistent 
with  decency  or  propriety  for  any  one  in  publick  to 
hazard  such  a  suggestion.  If,  in  consequence  of 
your  notification,  steps  should  be  taken  in  Parlia- 
ment, and  an  Act  passed  (which,  considering  the 
present  state  of  the  power  of  the  King  and  Ministry, 
is  more  than  probable)  to  prevent  your  marriage, 
you  will  be  reduced  to  the  most  difficult  of  all 
dilemmas  with  respect  to  the  footing  upon  which 

1  This  is  outside  the  argument.  There  never  was  any  question  of 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  becoming  Queen  of  England.  She  might  have 
become  Queen  of  Hanover,  but  never  Queen  of  England  without  a 
repeal  of  the  Act  of  Settlement. 


78  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

your  marriage  is  to  stand  for  the  future ;  and  your 
children  will  be  born  to  pretensions  which  must 
make  their  situation  unhappy,  if  not  dangerous. 
Their  situations  appear  to  me  of  all  others  the 
most  to  be  pitied  ;  and  the  more  so,  because  the 
more  indications  persons  born  in  such  circumstances 
give  of  spirit,  talents,  or  anything  that  is  good,  the 
more  will  they  be  suspected  and  oppressed,  and  the 
more  will  they  regret  the  being  deprived  of  what 
they  must  naturally  think  themselves  entitled  to. 

"  I  could  mention  many  other  considerations  upon 
this  business,  if  I  did  not  think  those  I  have  stated 
of  so  much  importance,  that  smaller  ones  would 
divert  your  attention  from  them  rather  than  add 
to  their  weight.  That  I  have  written  with  a  free- 
dom which  on  any  other  occasion  would  be  unbe- 
coming, I  readily  confess  ;  and  nothing  would  have 
induced  me  to  do  it,  but  a  deep  sense  of  my  duty  to 
a  Prince  who  has  honoured  me  with  so  much  of  his 
confidence,  and  who  would  have  but  an  ill  return 
for  all  his  favour  and  goodness  to  me,  if  I  were 
to  avoid  speaking  truth  to  him,  however  disagree- 
able, at  so  critical  a  juncture.  The  sum  of  my 
humble  advice,  nay,  of  my  most  earnest  entreaty, 
is  this — that  your  Royal  Highness  would  not  think 
of  marrying  till  you  can  marry  legally.  When  that 
time  comes,  you  must  judge  for  yourself;  and  no 
doubt  you  will  take  into  consideration,  both  what 
is  due  to  private  honour  and  your  publick  station. 
In  the  meanwhile,  a  mock  marriage  (for  it  can  be 
no  other)  is  neither  honourable  for  any  of  the 
parties,  nor,  with  respect  to  your  Royal  Highness, 
even  safe.  This  appears  so  clear  to  me,  that,  if 


SURRENDER  79 

I  were  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  father  or  brother,  I  would 
advise  her  not  by  any  means  to  agree  to  it,  and  to 
prefer  any  other  species  of  connection  with  you  to  one 
leading  to  so  much  misery  and  mischief. * 

"  It  is  high  time  I  should  finish  this  very  long  and, 
perhaps  your  Royal  Highness  will  think,  ill-timed 
letter ;  but  such  as  it  is,  it  is  dictated  by  pure  zeal 
and  attachment  to  your  Royal  Highness.  With 
respect  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  she  is  a  person  with 
whom  I  have  scarcely  the  honour  of  being  ac- 
quainted, but  I  hear  from  everybody  that  her  char- 
acter is  irreproachable  and  her  manners  most 
amiable.  Your  Royal  Highness  knows,  too,  that 
I  have  not  in  my  mind  the  same  objection  to 
intermarriages  with  Princes  and  subjects  which 
many  have.2  But  under  the  circumstances  a 
marriage  at  present  appears  to  me  to  be  the  most 
desperate  measure  for  all  parties  concerned  that 
their  worst  enemies  could  have  suggested." 3 

This,  it  must  be  admitted,  is,  as  a  whole,  a  tem- 
perate and  well-reasoned  letter,  worthy  of  the  writer, 
and  worthy  of  consideration  from  the  recipient. 
But  the  cynical  suggestion,  "  If  I  were  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert's father  or  brother  I  would  advise  her  not 
by  any  means  to  agree  to  it  (the  marriage),  and  to 

1  Lord  Russell  in  his  "  Life  of  Fox  "  most  disingenuously  omits  the 
words  in  italics  from  the  letter,  which  he  otherwise  quotes  in  full. 

2  Fox  had  strongly  opposed  the  Royal  Marriage  Act. 

3  This  letter,  together  with  the  Prince's  answer  thereto,  is  quoted 
from  the  "  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party,"  by  Lord  Holland,  1854.    Lord 
Holland  says,  "The  above  rough  draft  of  the  letter  which,  though 
without  signature,  is  all,  excepting  the  date,  in  Fox's  own  handwriting, 
was  found  among  his  papers  (after  his   death),  together  with  the 
answer,  written,  dated,  and  signed  by  the  Prince  of  Wales." 


8o  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

prefer  any  other  species  of  connection  with  you  to 
one  leading  to  so  much  misery  and  mischief,"  is  the 
weak  link  in  the  chain  of  argument  which  weakens 
all  the  rest.  If  we  take  into  account  the  laxity 
of  the  period,  it  was  not  an  unusual  sentiment  to 
come  from  a  free-thinking  man  of  the  world,  who, 
at  the  time  he  wrote  it,  was  living  openly  in  a 
"species  of  connection"  with  a  woman  who  was 
not  his  wife.  But  it  shows  that  Fox,  with  all  his 
shrewdness  and  worldly  wisdom,  was  incapable  of 
understanding  a  woman  of  the  type  of  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert.  Neither  could  he  enter  into  her  religious 
scruples,  or  realise  that  what  he  called  a  "mock 
marriage "  (it  was  undoubtedly  illegal)  would  be  a 
valid  marriage  in  her  sight,  and  valid  according  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Church  to  which  she  belonged. 
"  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,"  says  Mr.  Langdale,  "  was  a 
Catholic,  and  educated  in  the  principles  of  the 
Catholic  religion,  whose  doctrine  can  admit  no 
difference  between  a  prince  and  a  peasant,  con- 
demning alike  the  criminal  indulgences  of  either, 
and  maintaining  in  both  the  indissoluble  sacredness 
of  the  marriage  contract."1  These  considerations 
meant  nothing  to  Fox.  Yet  it  is  not  necessary  to 
be  a  man  of  strict  morality  to  realise  that  they 
would  be  vital  to  a  virtuous  woman.  Herein,  we 
take  it,  lies  the  difference  between  Fox  and  the 
Prince.  To  Fox  every  woman  was  "at  heart  a 
rake,"  but  the  Prince  knew  better,  and  realised 
that  between  the  woman  whom  he  wished  to 
make  his  wife  and  "  those  others  "  there  was  an 
impassable  gulf. 

1  Langdale,  op  tit. 


SURRENDER  81 

It  was  perhaps  this  obliquity  of  moral  vision 
which  accounted  for  Fox's  readiness  to  swallow  the 
glib  denial,  or  rather  evasion,  which  the  Prince  sent 
him  the  following  day.  It  was  much  easier,  more 
natural,  for  him  to  believe  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
had  yielded  at  discretion,  than  that  the  Prince  had 
agreed  to  her  stipulation  of  a  marriage.  In  view  of 
what  happened  later,  the  Prince's  answer  to  Fox's 
letter  is  very  important,  as  it  is  probably  the  only 
direct  communication  that  Fox  ever  received  from 
the  Prince  on  the  subject. 

H.R.H.  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  the  Right  Hon. 
C.  J.  Fox,  M.P. 

"My  DEAR  CHARLES, — Your  letter  of  last  night 
afforded  me  more  satisfaction  than  I  can  find  words 
to  express  ;  as  it  is  an  additional  proof  to  me  ( which, 
I  assure  you,  I  did  not  want)  of  your  having  that 
true  regard  and  affection  for  me  which  it  is  not  only 
the  wish  but  the  ambition  of  my  life  to  merit. 
Make  yourself  easy,  my  dear  friend.  Believe  me, 
the  world  will  soon  be  convinced  that  there  not 
only  is,1  but  never  was,  any  ground  for  these  reports, 
which  of  late  have  been  so  malevolently  circulated. 
I  have  not  seen  you  since  the  apostacy  of  Eden.2  I 
think  it  ought  to  have  the  same  effect  upon  all  our 
friends  that  it  has  upon  me,  I  mean  the  linking  us 
closer  to  each  other ;  and  I  believe  you  will  easily 
believe  these  to  be  my  sentiments ;  for  you  are 
perfectly  well  acquainted  with  my  ways  of  thinking 

1  The  Prince  meant  to  say  "  there  not  only  is  not." 

2  Mr.  Eden,  afterwards  Lord  Auckland,  seceded  from  the  Whigs 
and  joined  the  Tories  at  this  time. 

VOL.    I.  F 


82  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

upon  these  (sic)  sort  of  subjects.  When  I  say  my 
ways  of  thinking,  I  think  I  had  better  say  my  old 
maxim,  which  I  ever  intend  to  adhere  to ;  I  mean 
that  of  swimming  or  sinking  with  my  friends.  I 
have  not  time  to  add  much  more,  except  just  to  say 
that  I  believe  I  shall  meet  you  at  dinner  at  Bushey l 
on  Tuesday  ;  and  to  desire  you  to  believe  me  at  all 
times,  my  dear  Charles,  most  affectionately  yours, 

"GEORGE    P." 
"CARLTON  HOUSE, 
Sunday  morning^  i  o'clock, 
December  n,  1785." 

It  is  impossible  to  acquit  the  Prince  of  the  inten- 
tion to  deceive  Fox  by  this  disingenuous  epistle. 
Not  only  was  his  marriage  already  decided  upon, 
but  at  the  very  hour  he  wrote  arrangements  for  the 
ceremony  were  being  hurriedly  pressed  forward. 
Perhaps  the  Prince,  to  whom  sophistry  and  equi- 
vocation were  second  nature,  justified  himself  by 
the  quibble  that  as  the  marriage  had  not  yet  taken 
place  he  could  still  deny  it  by  implication.  For,  be 
it  noted,  he  makes  no  direct  allusion  to  it,  he  only 
denies  generally  "  these  reports  which  of  late  have 
been  so  malevolently  circulated."  As  a  great  many 
of  the  reports  then  current  were  false  and  exag- 
gerated, the  Prince  was  safe  in  denying  them. 
Yet  if  Fox  had  studied  the  letter  carefully  then  (as 
he  doubtless  studied  it  later)  he  would  have  seen 
that  the  Prince  only  evaded  the  point.  He  might 
also  have  read  between  the  lines  how  embarrassing 

1  Lord  North,  who  was  a  friend  of  both  Fox  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  was  then  living  at  Bushey.  But  there  is  no  record  that  the 
dinner  ever  took  place. 


SURRENDER  83 

the  subject  was,  for  the  Prince  hastily  escapes  from 
it  to  "  the  apostacy  of  Eden,"  of  which  Fox  had  said 
nothing.  He  might  have  remembered,  too,  the 
Prince's  notorious  disregard  of  truth.  But  people 
are  always  ready  to  believe  what  they  wish  to  be- 
lieve, and  Fox,  having  received  a  document  which 
would  not  only  exonerate  him  from  any  knowledge 
of  the  marriage,  but  would  also  enable  him  to  deny 
it  with  authority  if  occasion  arose,  washed  his  hands 
of  the  business.  The  Prince,  we  may  be  sure,  did 
not  reopen  the  subject  with  Fox,  nor  did  he  mention 
this  correspondence  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  either  then 
or  at  any  future  time.  Had  she  seen  Fox's  letter  to 
the  Prince,  coming  from  a  man  of  his  private  re- 
putation and  political  position,  it  might,  even  at  the 
eleventh  hour,  have  made  her  pause,  for  it  would 
have  shown  her  clearly  not  only  the  risks  the  Prince 
ran,  but  how  she  herself  would  be  regarded  by  a 
censorious  world. 

One  would  have  thought  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
"  male  relatives,"  to  whom  Fox  alludes,  would  have 
advised  her  against  the  marriage.  But  they  had 
been  won  over  to  the  Prince's  side.  Her  two  elder 
brothers,  Watt  and  Jack  Smythe,  were  hot-headed, 
impulsive  youths,  lately  thrown  upon  the  town. 
That  they  should  have  been  over-persuaded  by  the 
Prince  is  not  astonishing,  especially  as  he  vowed,  by 
all  that  was  holy,  that  he  held  their  sister  in  highest 
honour.  The  sons  of  a  Roman  Catholic  country 
squire,  bred  up  in  the  seclusion  then  consequent  on 
their  faith,  they  were  flattered,  not  unnaturally,  by 
the  notice  of  the  most  accomplished  Prince  of  his 
age,  and  they  were  dazzled  by  the  prospect  held 


84  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

out  of  future  favours  arising  from  the  brilliant 
alliance.  They  neither  realised,  nor  recked,  the 
dangers  of  such  a  connection  to  their  sister.  But 
her  uncle,  Mr.  Errington,  should  have  been  wiser. 
He  was  a  man  of  the  world,  of  means  and  of  posi- 
tion :  he  had  stood  in  the  place  of  guardian  to  his 
niece  since  her  father  had  become  a  hopeless  invalid. 
He  must  have  realised  that,  in  the  long  run,  such 
a  union  could  not  make  for  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
happiness.  He,  a  prominent  Roman  Catholic  lay- 
man, must  have  known  that  the  marriage  was 
illegal,  and  that  the  illegality  was  complicated  by 
the  fact  of  his  niece's  religion.  True,  at  first  he  re- 
monstrated with  her,  but  she  would  not  listen ;  and 
when  he  had  satisfied  himself  that  there  was  to  be  a 
marriage  ceremony  fulfilling  the  requirements  of  his 
Church,  he  let  things  take  their  course.  After  all, 
his  niece  was  a  woman  of  twenty-nine  years  of  age, 
who  had  been  twice  a  widow.  The  family  honour 
would  be  satisfied,  for  the  rest  she  must  take  care 
of  herself.  He  even  lent  himself  to  helping  the 
marriage  forward,  for  he  promised  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
that  he  and  one  of  her  brothers  should  be  present 
at  the  ceremony  to  see  that  everything  was  done 
regularly  and  in  due  order. 

Thus  one  difficulty  was  surmounted.  But  there 
remained  another,  not  so  easily  overcome.  A 
marriage  such  as  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  insisted  upon,  a 
real  marriage  as  opposed  to  the  sham  ceremony  at 
Carlton  House,  involved  not  only  witnesses,  but  an 
officiating  clergyman.  On  the  surface  it  would 
seem  that  the  simplest  way  to  satisfy  her  scruples 
would  be  for  the  ceremony  to  be  performed 


SURRENDER  85 

secretly  by  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  according 
to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  customary 
in  what  are  known  as  "mixed  marriages" — the 
marriage  of  a  Roman  Catholic  with  a  baptized 
Christian,  whether  Greek  or  Anglican,  or  belonging 
to  one  of  the  Protestant  sects.  But  according  to 
the  law  of  England  at  that  time  it  was  a  serious 
offence  for  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  to  celebrate  a 
marriage  between  one  of  his  faith  and  a  member 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Such  marriages  had  to 
be  performed  by  a  clergyman  of  the  Established 
Church  if  they  were  to  be  regarded  as  legal,  and  so 
the  law  continued  until  the  second  Relief  Act  of 
1791.  Until  then,  even  marriages  between  two 
Roman  Catholics  had  to  be  solemnised  by  a  clergy- 
man of  the  Established  Church  if  they  were  to  be 
legally  binding.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  may  therefore 
have  stipulated  for  the  presence  of  a  clergyman  of 
the  Established  Church,  as  an  additional  guarantee 
of  the  regularity  (though  not  of  the  validity)  of  the 
marriage.  But  it  is  more  probable  that  the  Prince 
of  Wales  was  averse  to  a  secret  marriage  by  a 
Roman  Catholic  priest,  because,  if  it  ever  became 
known,  such  an  act  might  be  regarded  by  zealous 
Protestants  as  an  act  of  communion  with  the  Church 
of  Rome  on  the  part  of  the  heir-apparent.  It  was 
therefore  a  sine  qua  non  that  the  marriage  should  be 
performed  by  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. The  difficulty  arose  in  finding  one  willing 
to  perform  the  ceremony. 

According  to  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  of  1772 
a  clergyman  solemnising  such  a  marriage  would  be 
committing  an  illegal  act,  and  exposing  himself  to 


86  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

the  penalties  of  premunire,  whatever  they  might  be 
— in  olden  days  death,  then  probably  confiscation 
of  property  and  transportation  beyond  the  seas. 
Some  clergymen  might  be  found  to  argue  that  an 
Act  of  Parliament  tampering  with  the  marriage  law 
was  not  binding  on  the  Church,  since  it  was  carried 
without  consulting  Convocation.  The  Canon  Law  of 
the  Church  of  England  remained  the  same  whatever 
Parliament  might  do,  and  thus  a  clergyman  need 
have  no  scruple  about  performing  the  marriage 
ceremony.  But  the  difficulty  was  complicated  by 
the  fact  of  the  woman  being  a  Roman  Catholic  and 
the  man  the  heir-apparent  to  the  throne.  No  con- 
scientious clergyman  of  the  Established  Church, 
even  the  most  liberal-minded,  could  upon  reflection 
consider  that,  in  the  existing  state  of  public  feeling, 
it  would  be  a  wise  or  seemly  thing  for  the  Prince  of 
Wales  to  set  at  defiance  the  law  by  which  the  House 
of  Hanover  succeeded  to  the  English  throne,  and 
espouse  a  Roman  Catholic. 

There  were  of  course  unscrupulous  and  venal 
clergymen,  and  to  these  Colonel  Gardner,  the 
Prince's  private  secretary,  to  whom  was  entrusted 
the  task  of  finding  a  clergyman,  went  first.  He, 
true  to  his  instinct,  sought  one  of  the  type  of  the 
notorious  Parson  Keith  and  the  Chaplain  of  the 
Fleet.  He  first  made  application  to  the  Rev.  Philip 
Rosenhagen,  a  disreputable  military  chaplain,  who, 
being  a  clever  and  cunning  scoundrel,  had  made 
his  way  into  the  Prince's  society.  Rosenhagen 
was  a  friend  of  Sir  Philip  Francis,  and  at  his 
death  in  1799  he  left  him  his  papers,  which  included 
certain  letters  relating  to  the  marriage  of  the  Prince 


SURRENDER  87 

of  Wales  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  Lady  Francis  gives 
the  following  account  of  them  : — 

"  Colonel  Gardner,  the  Prince's  private  secretary, 
writes  the  first  letter,  asking  R.  to  perform  the 
ceremony.  R.  replies  that  it  would  be  contrary 
to  the  law  for  him  to  do  so,  and,  if  done,  would 
be  productive  of  important,  probably  disastrous, 
consequences  to  the  whole  nation.  The  Colonel 
answers  that  the  Prince  is  aware  of  all  that,  but 
pledges  himself  to  keep  the  matter  a  profound 
secret,  and  that  the  Prince  will  feel  bound  to 
reward  R.  for  such  a  proof  of  his  attachment,  as 
soon  as  the  means  are  in  his  power.  Rosenhagen 
in  reply  says  that  he  can  trust  implicitly  the  Prince's 
promise  of  secrecy,  but  he  dare  not  betray  the  duty 
he  owes  to  the  Prince,  by  assisting  in  an  affair  that 
might  bring  such  serious  consequence  to  him." 
Lady  Francis  says  there  were  six  letters,  and  she 
"  believes  Rosenhagen  declined  the  business  because 
no  specific  offer  was  made  to  him,  and  not  from  the 
motive  stated  in  the  letters,  as  he  was  daring  and 
unscrupulous." 1 

Application  was  next  made  to  a  clergyman  of  a 
very  different  type,  the  Rev.  Johnes  Knight,  Rector 
of  Welwyn  in  Hertfordshire,  and  who  also,  after  the 
pluralist  fashion  of  those  days,  held  a  city  living. 
"  Parson  Johnes,"  as  he  was  called,  was  a  jovial 
divine  of  the  old  school.  He  was  a  man  of  ample 
private  means,  a  judge  of  good  port,  and  a  keen 
sportsman.  He  was  more  of  the  squire  than  the 
parson,  and  though  he  was  a  scholar,  and  had  the 

1  "Memoirs  of  Sir  Philip  Francis,  K.C.B.,  with  Correspondence 
and  Journals,"  1867. 


88  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

advantages  of  wealth  and  good  connections,  yet  he 
did  not  seek  preferment  in  the  Church,  but  pre- 
ferred his  independence,  which  he  might  have  had 
to  sacrifice  on  promotion.  He  had  known  the 
Prince  of  Wales  "since  he  was  a  child  in  frocks," 
and  was  sincerely  attached  to  him.  Parson  Johnes 
had  a  good  many  friends  in  high  places.  He  often 
posted  up  to  London  to  look  after  his  city  church, 
see  his  friends,  and  dine  at  his  favourite  haunts. 
On  one  of  these  occasions  he  paid  a  visit  to  Lord 
North  at  Bushey,2  and  it  was  while  he  was  staying 
there  that  he  was  approached  on  the  subject  of 
marrying  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  to  the  Prince.  The 
story  is  best  told  in  his  own  words.  This  is 
fortunately  possible  by  giving  the  following  letter 
which  Mr.  Johnes  Knight  wrote  to  his  daughter 
Louisa,  Lady  Shelley,  forty-five  years  later,  four 
months  after  the  death  of  George  IV.  :3 — 

The  Reverend  S.  Johnes  Knight  to  Lady  Shelley. 

".HENLEY  HALL,  September  28,  1830. 

"Mv  DEAREST  DAUGHTER, — To  please  you  I  will 
try  to  recollect  my  part  in  the  transaction  of  the 
marriage  of  the  late  King  George  IV.,  when  Prince 
of  Wales,  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 

"  In  the  month  of  December  1785  I  was  staying 

1  Hie  et  ubique,  by  Sir  William  Fraser. 

2  Frederick  North,  second  Earl  of  Guildford,  better  known  as  Lord 
North  (1732-1792),  sometime  Prime  Minister. 

8  The  Rev.  Johnes  Knight  lived  to  be  nearly  a  hundred  years  of 
age,  and  his  memory  was  excellent  until  within  a  few  years  of  his 
death.  The  following  letter  was  lent  to  me,  for  the  purpose  of 
dublication  in  this  book,  by  a  relative  of  his  daughter,  the  late  Lady 
Shelley.  I  give  the  letter,  now  published  for  the  first  time,  in  full. 


MRS.  FITZHERBERT 
(After  the  Painting  by  GEORGE  COSWAY,  R.A.) 


SURRENDER  89 

with  Lord  North  at  Bushey  Park.  At  that  time 
there  were  only  his  own  family  with  him.  We 
were  playing  at  some  round  game  on  one  of  those 
evenings,  when,  about  nine  o'clock,  a  letter  was 
brought  to  me  from  the  Prince,  in  which  he  com- 
manded me  to  come  directly  to  a  supper  at  Carlton 
House.  By  Lord  North's  advice  I  instantly  set 
off  for  London  ;  and  I  believe  his  Lordship  thought 
something  more  was  intended  for  me  than  a  mere 
supper,  since  Lady  Glenbervie1  told  me  her  father 
desired  they  would  never  mention  this  letter  of  the 
Prince. 

"  On  my  arrival  at  Carlton  House,  a  letter  was 
delivered  to  me  from  Edward  Bouverie  to  say 
that  the  party  was  put  off,  and  that  the  Prince  ex- 
pected to  see  me  at  an  early  hour  the  next  morning. 
It  was  now  eleven  o'clock,  and  I  proceeded  to  the 
'  Mount '  coffee  house  in  Lower  Grosvenor  Street 
to  get  some  supper.  Here  I  chanced  to  meet  with 
Colonel  Lake  (created  Lord  Lake),2  and  we  supped 
together.  In  the  course  of  conversation  we  talked 
of  the  Prince's  attachment  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and 
Lake  said  that  he  was  almost  certain  the  Prince 
intended  to  marry  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  but  that  he 
trusted  no  clergyman  would  be  found  to  perform 
the  ceremony.  To  this  I  cordially  agreed,  and  I 
went  home  to  Stratford  Place,  where  my  mother 
resided. 

"The   next   morning   I   was   admitted   into  the 

1  Catherine  Anna,  daughter  of  Lord  North,  second  Earl  of  Guild- 
ford  (1760-1817),  married  first  Baron  Glenbervie. 

2  Gerrard  Lake,  first  Viscount  Lake  of  Delhi  (1744-1808),  a  distin- 
guished soldier,  afterwards  Commander-in-Chief  in  India. 


90  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Prince's  dressing-room  at  Carlton  House,  and  the 
Prince  very  soon  came  to  me  in  his  dressing-gown, 
appearing  to  have  just  got  out  of  bed.  He  began 
by  apologising  for  bringing  me  from  Bushey  Park, 
and  then,  in  that  persuasive  language  he  knew  so 
well  how  to  employ,  he  detailed  his  long  love  for 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  the  misery  he  had  endured,  the 
taunts  he  had  received  from  the  King  in  conse- 
quence of  its  having  been  suspected  that  the  Prince, 
in  the  course  of  the  last  summer,  had  gone  from 
Brighton  to  the  French  coast  to  visit  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert. As  a  proof  of  his  passion  he  then  drew 
up  his  shirt,  and  showed  a  scar  on  his  side,  which 
the  Prince  said  was  caused  by  his  falling  on  his 
sword  that  he  might  end  his  life  with  his  hopeless 
love.1  The  Prince  then  spoke  of  his  determination 
to  repeal  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  the  instant  he 
came  to  the  Throne  (which,  by-the-bye,  has  never 
yet  been  done).  The  Prince  in  conclusion  begged 
me,  if  I  was  really  attached  to  him,  to  perform  the 
marriage  ceremony  between  him  and  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert. I  used  every  argument  I  could  think  of 
to  dissuade  him  from  his  purpose,  but  the  more  I 
argued  against  the  marriage  the  more  resolved  the 
Prince  seemed  to  become  the  husband  of  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert, and  at  last  the  Prince  said,  '  If  you  refuse 
to  marry  me,  I  must  find  out  another  clergyman 
who  will.'  This  vehemence  of  his  made  me  appre- 
hensive that  the  Prince  might  get  some  clergyman 
to  marry  him  for  the  chance  of  Church  preferment, 
and  then  that  this  same  divine  for  a  larger  bribe 

1  The  scar  which  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  told  Lord  Stourton  she  had 
frequently  seen. 


SURRENDER  91 

would  betray  the  Prince's  secret  to  Mr.  Pitt,  who 
was  then  Prime  Minister.  This  made  me  unable 
to  resist  the  Prince's  importunity,  and  I  could  not 
bear  to  see  him  so  miserable ;  for  at  the  period  I 
am  writing  about,  I  esteemed  the  Prince,  notwith- 
standing the  difference  of  our  rank,  with  all  the 
warmth  of  equality  in  friendship. 

"  Dearest  Louisa,  do  not  blame  me  for  this  weak- 
ness ;  bear  in  mind  I  was  young,  and  could  not 
help  being  flattered  by  the  attentions  of  a  Prince 
who  was  one  of  the  best  arguers,  in  his  own  cause, 
I  have  ever  known.  His  were  not  the  regards  of 
a  common  person  ;  whoever  he  wished  to  gain  he 
talked  to  so  frankly,  and  on  subjects  most  interest- 
ing to  his  hearer,  and  his  tact  was  so  nice  that  he 
never  failed  in  the  most  minute  circumstance  which 
he  supposed  might  captivate  those  with  whom  he, 
for  the  present  hour,  chose  to  associate.  In  a  word, 
his  manner,  his  earnestness,  his  devoted  attachment 
to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  his  recklessness  of  the  future, 
aided  by  one  little  but  painful  circumstance,  namely 
a  Prince  imploring  the  consent  of  a  subject,  subdued 
me,  and  I  agreed  to  marry  him. 

"  This  point  being  settled,  the  Prince  said  that 
on  a  certain  day  I  should  be  walking  between 
seven  and  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  at  the  upper 
end  of  Park  Lane  near  Hereford  Street,1  where 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  then  lived,  and  that  a  person 
should  be  ready  to  introduce  me  into  her  house ;  I 
understood  from  the  Prince  that  the  only  persons 
who  would  attend  the  wedding  were  his  friends  the 

1  Now  known  as  Hereford  Gardens,  at  the  Oxford  Street  end  of 
Park  Street  and  Park  Lane. 


92  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Duke  of  Devonshire,  and  his  Duchess,  the  sister  of 
Lord  Spencer.  I  then,  after  thanks  in  abundance 
showered  on  me,  left  Carlton  House. 

"  I  walked  home  full  of  the  important  business, 
and  aware  of  the  serious  results  I  was  bringing  on 
myself,  yet  without  the  slightest  inclination  to  draw 
back,  when,  just  at  the  door,  my  last  night's  con- 
versation with  Lord  Lake  at  the  '  Mount '  coffee 
house,  flashed  across  my  memory.  I  too  late  recol- 
lected that  I  had  tacitly  engaged  not  to  marry  the 
Prince  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  This  made  me  shrink 
from  the  imprudent  step  I  had  taken.  In  my  de- 
votedness  to  the  Prince  I  had  set  at  naught  the 
legal  penalties  I  must  incur,  but  I  could  not  divest 
myself  of  the  dread  of  reproach  from  Lord  Lake, 
for  having  broken  my  word.  I  had,  and  ever  shall 
have,  the  highest  opinion  of  the  honour  and  in- 
tegrity of  Lord  Lake.  I  know  he  was  sincerely 
attached  to  the  Prince,  and  I  would  not  have  for- 
feited Lord  Lake's  good  opinion  for  all  the  world. 
I  was  now  completely  wretched,  and,  as  a  last  re- 
source, I  immediately  wrote  the  most  affecting  letter 
I  could  to  the  Prince,  saying  that  before  I  saw  him, 
I  had  promised  to  one  person  that  nothing  should 
induce  me  to  marry  the  Prince  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert, 
that  I  had  resolved  to  brave  every  punishment  and 
loss  I  might  sustain  from  having  solemnised  such 
marriage  when  persuaded  to  this  by  the  Prince 
himself;  but  that  I  could  not  endure  loss  of  honour. 
I  mentioned,  too,  most  truly,  that  during  the  in- 
teresting conversation  I  was  honoured  with  by  him 
on  this  subject  I  lost  sight  of  the  promise  I  had 
made,  but  that  now,  in  my  cool  moments  of  re- 


SURRENDER  93 

flection,  it  made  me  most  unhappy,  and  I  conjured 
him,  by  the  strongest  terms  I  could  use,  to  allow  me 
to  decline  the  marriage  ceremony. 

"  The  Prince  sent  me  directly  a  very  kind  answer 
releasing  me  from  my  engagement,  and  ordering 
me  to  wait  on  him  at  Colonel  Gardner's  house  in 
Queen  Street.  Colonel  Gardner  naturally  enough 
said,  '  It  was  a  pity  I  had  not  recollected  my 
promise  before  I  had  allowed  the  Prince  to  con- 
fide in  me.'  I  replied  that  I  was  very  sorry  for  it, 
but  that  the  agitation  of  such  a  question,  and  the 
Prince's  importunity,  had  for  the  moment  over- 
come me.  We  were  now  at  Colonel  Gardner's 
house ;  the  Prince  was  already  there.  He  shook 
hands  with  me,  at  the  same  time  saying,  '  if  he  had 
not  let  me  off,  I  must  inevitably  have  fled  from 
England.'  To  this  royal  logic  I  joyfully  assented, 
though  for  the  life  of  me  I  never  could  make  out 
how  banishment  must  necessarily  follow  my  reso- 
lution to  conform  to  the  law.  In  the  course  of  con- 
versation the  Prince  said  he  was  sure  he  knew  the 
friend  who  had  bound  me,  meaning  Lord  North, 
but  without  mentioning  his  name.  I  replied  '  that 
H.R.H.  must  pardon  me,  but  that  I  never  could  tell 
who  that  friend  was.'  We  then  separated. 

"  I  instantly  destroyed  the  Prince's  letters,  and 
never  till  the  death  of  George  IV.  mentioned  the 
business  to  any  one.  Neither  did  I  tell  Lord  Lake 
on  his  return  from  India,  when  the  tale  was  out  of 
date,  what  I  had  suffered  not  to  lose  his  friendship. 

"  I  am  firmly  convinced  that  the  Prince  was 
married  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  that  all  the  English 
Roman  Catholics  considered  her  as  the  legal  wife  of 


94  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

George  IV.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  when  the 
Prince  told  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  that  I  declined  marry- 
ing him  to  her,  that  he  forgot  to  tell  her  my  strict 
sense  of  honour  alone  prevented  my  performing  the 
ceremony.  I  can  speak  nothing  but  what  is  as 
honourable  as  is  true  of  that  ill-used  Lady.  In  her 
long  intercourse  with  the  Prince  of  Wales,  she  never 
spoke  ill  of  any  human  being.  She  never  was 
versed  in  the  low  art  of  courtly  detraction  and 
calumny,  she  never  enriched  herself,  her  relations 
or  friends,  by  imposing  on  confiding  Royalty ;  she 
never  conspired  with  any  low-born  engine  (sic)  to 
keep  the  distinguished  Ruler  of  England  inclosed 
in  a  magic  circle,  remote  from  the  affections  of  his 
people.  But  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  truly  and 
honestly  attached  to  her  Royal  Husband,  and 
always  intent  on  his  showing  himself  frequently 
among  those  who  were  destined  to  be  his  subjects. 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  has  lived  honoured  and  respected,1 
without  guile,  without  deceit,  and  without  that  most 
odious  vice  of  avarice.  Happy  had  it  been  for  this 
forsaken  Lady,  had  she  never  been  the  object  of 
princely  love,  and  a  thousand  times  happier  had  it 
been  for  the  Prince,  had  he  never  deserted  her  for 
the  dearly-bought  smiles  of  her  unworthy  successor. 

"  My  dear  daughter,  you  have  now  all  I  ever  re- 
member of  this  matter,  for  I  write  from  memory 
only,  having  always  thought  it  base  to  commit  to 
writing  the  conversations  of  the  day.  I  have  told 
you  what  happened  forty-five  years  ago. 

"  Adieu,  dearest ;  I  hope  this  will  give  you  half  as 

1  It  must  be  remembered  that  she  was  still  living  when  this  letter 
was  written. 


SURRENDER  95 

much  pleasure  in  reading,  as  it  has  done  your  most 
affectionate  Father  in  writing  it.     Ever  yours, 

"  S.  JOHNES  KNIGHT." 

Both  the  clergymen  who  were  thus  unsuccess- 
fully approached  were  sworn  to  secrecy,  and 
neither  of  them  betrayed  his  pledged  word,  or 
gave  the  slightest  hint  of  what  was  going  on.  Yet 
rumour  was  extraordinarily  busy,  and  for  once 
was  very  near  the  truth.  The  return  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  to  London  soon  became  generally 
known,  and  the  gossip  of  the  town  put  its  own  con- 
struction upon  it.  In  the  clubs  and  coffee-houses, 
and  in  the  drawing-rooms  of  great  ladies,  nothing 
was  talked  of  but  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  return,  and 
the  terms  on  which  she  was  supposed  to  have  sur- 
rendered to  the  Prince's  importunities  were  eagerly 
discussed.  Had  she  insisted  upon  a  marriage  or 
had  she  not  ?  this  was  the  all-engrossing  topic  in  the 
world  of  fashion.  Many  of  her  friends  declared 
that  she  must  have  done  so ;  others,  more  worldly- 
minded,  shrugged  their  shoulders  and  looked  dubious. 
The  discussion  was  animated  and  prolonged,  and 
long  before  it  came  to  an  end  the  marriage  had 
already  taken  place,  with  far  more  solemn  and  bind- 
ing forms  than  rumour  generally  supposed. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE   MARRIAGE 

(1785) 

AT  last  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England 
was  found  willing  to  perform  the  marriage  cere- 
mony. The  Rev.  Robert  Burt,  a  young  curate, 
who  had  been  recently  admitted  to  priest's  orders, 
consented  to  run  the  risk,  and  to  marry  the 
Prince  of  Wales  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  in  return 
for  ^500  paid  down  and  the  promise  of  future 
preferment. 

All  obstacles  being  thus  removed,  the  marriage 
took  place  about  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  De- 
cember 15,  1785,  at  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  town  house 
in  Park  Street,  Park  Lane. l  The  ceremony 
was  duly  performed  according  to  the  rites  of  the 
Church  of  England  by  an  ordained  priest  of  that 
Church.  Lord  Stourton  says  that  "  she  was  married 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  Catholic  Church  ...  no 
Roman  Catholic  priest  officiating,"2  —  a  confusion 

1  This  house,  which  was  at  the  upper  end  of  Park  Street,  close  to 
Oxford  Street,  near  what  is  now  known  as  Hereford  Gardens,  has  been 
pulled  down.     It  was  standing  until  within  a  comparatively  recent 
date.    Lady  Constance  Leslie,  a  daughter  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  adopted 
daughter,  the  Hon.  Mrs.  George  Dawson   Damer,  remembers  her 
father  pointing  it  out  to  her  as  "the  house  where  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
married  George    IV."     It  was  the  house  left  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  by 
her  second  husband. 

2  Langdale,  op.  cit. 

9* 


THE   MARRIAGE  97 

of  language  which  does  not  mean  that  the 
Roman  ritual  was  followed,  but  that  such  forms 
were  observed  as  are  recognised  by  the  Church 
of  Rome  to  constitute  a  valid  marriage ;  the 
Anglican  rite,  performed  by  an  Anglican  clergy- 
man, in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  is  deemed 
sufficient. 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  uncle,  Henry  Errington,  gave 
his  niece  away,  and  he  and  her  brother,  Jack  Smythe, 
acted  as  witnesses.  The  greatest  secrecy  was  ob- 
served. The  Prince  came  on  foot  from  Carlton 
House  after  dusk,  attended  only,  it  is  said,  by  Mr. 
Orlando  Bridgeman.1  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  with  her 
uncle  and  brother  and  the  officiating  clergyman, 
had  already  assembled  in  the  drawing-room,  and 
when  the  Prince  arrived  the  doors  of  the  room 
were  locked,  the  clergyman  put  on  his  surplice, 
and  began  the  service  according  to  "  The  Form  of 
Solemnisation  of  Matrimony  in  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer."  Mr.  Bridgeman  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  actually  present  at  the  marriage ; 
he  was  probably  on  guard  outside  the  door  of  the 
room,  perhaps  outside  the  door  of  the  house,  to  give 

1  Orlando  Bridgeman  (1762-1825)  was  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  Henry 
Bridgeman,  Bart.,  afterwards  created  first  Baron  Bradford.  Orlando, 
who  was  then  twenty-three  years  of  age,  was  M.P.  for  Wigan.  He 
succeeded  his  father  in  1800,  and  in  1815  was  created  first  Earl  of 
Bradford.  He  was  a  Shropshire  man,  a  friend  of  the  Smythe  family, 
and  always  a  friend  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  His  presence  on  this 
occasion  is  therefore  quite  likely,  though  he  was  not  one  of  the  witnesses 
of  the  marriage.  In  addition  to  Mr.  Bridgeman  some  say  that  General 
Keppel,  and  others  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  were  present  at  the  marriage 
as  friends  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  But  this  is  unlikely.  Not  even 
Colonel  Gardner,  who  had  found  the  clergymen  and  arranged  all  the 
details  of  the  ceremony,  was  present ;  the  Prince  not  wishing  to  com- 
promise any  of  his  servants  or  friends. 

VOL.    I.  G 


98  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

alarm  in  case  of  need.  For  it  must  be  remembered 
this  was  the  first  clandestine  marriage  of  a  prince  of 
the  blood  since  the  passing  of  the  Royal  Marriage 
Act,  and  if  the  King  or  the  Government  had  had 
any  hint  of  what  was  going  on,  the  ceremony  would 
have  been  prevented,  if  necessary  by  force.  But 
it  passed  off  without  interruption.  No  one  alleged 
any  impediment  why  these  two  should  "not  be 
coupled  together  in  matrimony."  Before  a  clergy- 
man of  the  Church  of  England,  and  in  the  presence 
of  witnesses,  George  Prince  of  Wales  and  Maria 
Fitzherbert  knelt  side  by  side  and  repeated  the 
vows  that  made  them  man  and  wife.  The  priest 
joined  their  hands  and  pronounced  over  them  the 
solemn  words,  "  Those  whom  God  hath  joined 
together  let  no  man  put  asunder"  . 

When  the  service  was  concluded,  the  Prince  of 
Wales  wrote  out  a  certificate  of  marriage  with  his 
own  hand  and  signed  it.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  also 
signed  it,  and  the  two  witnesses  added  their  names 
— John  Smythe  and  Henry  Errington.  This  cer- 
tificate (her  marriage  lines)  was  given  into  the  keep- 
ing of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  Many  years  later  the 
witnesses'  signatures  were  cut  out  of  the  certificate 
in  a  moment  of  panic  at  their  earnest  request  "  by 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  herself,  with  her  own  scissors,  to 
save  them  from  the  peril  of  the  law."1  But  the 
document  thus  mutilated  was  always  kept  by  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  and  in  1833  (under  circumstances  which 
will  be  related  more  fully  later)  it  was  placed  by  her, 
with  other  papers  necessary  to  prove  her  marriage, 

1  Langdale,  op.  cit. 


THE   MARRIAGE  99 

in  Messrs.  Coutts's  Bank.     The  certificate l  runs  as 
follows : — 


We,  the  undersigned,  do  witness  yt  George 
Augustus  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  was 
married  unto  Maria  Fitzherbert,  this  15'*  of 
December  1785. 


Witnesses'  names  cut  out. 


GEORGE  P. 
MARIA  FITZHERBERT. 


Mrs.  Fitzherbert  soon  regretted  her  hasty  act  in 
cutting  out  the  witnesses'  names.  She  realised  that 
it  weakened  the  value  of  the  document  as  evidence, 
and  to  supply  the  defect  she  kept  a  letter  which 
the  Prince  wrote  to  her  nearly  fourteen  years 
after  their  marriage.  In  this  letter,  dated  from 
Windsor  Castle,  June  n,  1799,  he  said,  speaking 
of  their  marriage  : — 

1  I  am  allowed  to  publish  the  certificate  here  by  gracious  permis- 
sion of  His  Majesty  the  King.  It  is  the  paper  marked  "  No.  2"  on 
the  list  given  by  Langdale  (pp.  tit.  p.  87),  and  was  until  recently  kept 
at  Messrs.  Coutts's  Bank.  It  has  now  been  removed,  with  the  other 
Fitzherbert  papers,  to  the  private  archives  at  Windsor  Castle  by 
command  of  His  Majesty.  Mr.  Langdale,  who  had  never  seen  the 
document,  gives  the  wrong  date  to  the  marriage,  December  21,  1785. 
It  took  place  on  December  15,  1785.  The  tail  of  the  "g"  of  Mr 
Errington's  signature  can  be  seen. 


ioo  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

"  Thank  God  my  witnesses  are  living ',  your  uncle 
and  your  brother,  besides  Harris  [Lord  Malmes- 
bury],  whom  I  shall  call  upon  as  having  been  informed 
by  me  of  every \  even  the  minutest^  circumstance  of 
our  marriage" 

It  will  be  seen  that  everything  connected  with 
the  ceremony  was  carried  out  in  due  order.  The 
Prince  was  quite  as  anxious  as  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
that  this  should  be  so — that  nothing  should  be 
wanting  which  could  make  her  his  wife  according 
to  God's  law. 

It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the  young  Prince 
was  not  absolutely  sincere.  Despite  his  youthful 
follies  he  was  far  from  being  an  irreligious  man. 
He  knew  that  to  the  woman  he  loved  and  honoured 
the  marriage  was  a  real  one ;  to  her  marriage  was 
a  sacrament,  and  the  vows  she  uttered  were  binding 
on  her  conscience  and  life.  There  is  no  reason 
to  believe  that  the  Prince  regarded  the  marriage 
in  a  different  light,  or  to  doubt  that  he  meant  his 
vows  to  be  equally  binding  on  him.  There  is 
abundant  evidence  to  prove  that  despite  the  wrong 
he  did  her  in  after  years,  she  was  always  in  his 
heart  of  hearts  his  "only  real  and  true  wife." 

The  Prince  could  never  make  her  Princess 
of  Wales,  she  could  never  share  with  him  his 

1  This  extract  from  the  Prince's  letter  is  published  here  by 
gracious  permission  of  His  Majesty  the  King.  This  document  is 
marked  "  3 "  on  the  list  given  by  Langdale  {op.  tit.  p.  87)  :  "  Letter 
from  the  late  King  relating  to  the  Marriage."  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  told 
Lord  Stourton  who  her  witnesses  were,  and  this  letter  corroborates 
her  statement.  It  also  goes  to  show  that  Orlando  Bridgeman  was 
not  actually  present  at  the  ceremony.  The  officiating  clergyman  is 
not  mentioned  by  the  Prince  ;  he  had  died  in  1791. 


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THE   MARRIAGE  101 

throne,  their  children  (if  there  were  any)  could 
never  succeed  to  the  crown  of  England,  but  he 
could  and  did  make  her  his  wife,  according  to  the 
law  of  the  Church  Catholic  throughout  the  world, 
though  not  according  to  the  law  of  the  British 
Parliament.  There  was  no  deception  in  this,  for 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  knew  the  existing  state  of  the  civil 
law  as  well  as  he.  By  this  marriage  he  fulfilled 
the  only  stipulation  she  demanded,  for  the  rest  she 
trusted  wholly  to  his  honour.  That  she  trusted  to  a 
broken  reed  is  a  matter  of  history,  yet  we  refuse  to 
believe  that  at  the  time  of  his  marriage  he  acted  in 
bad  faith,  or  ever  (even  in  after  years)  willingly 
wronged  her.  What  happened  later  does  not 
necessarily  impair  his  sincerity  of  purpose  at  the 
time  of  his  marriage.  He  was  full  of  good  inten- 
tions. If  she  had  made  sacrifices,  and  they  were 
great,  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  he  made  sacri- 
fices too.  For  he  knew  that  if  this  union  ever 
became  known,  the  consequences  might  be  most 
serious  to  him.  It  says  much  for  his  trust  in 
the  woman  he  married,  as  well  as  his  love  for 
her,  that  he  placed  in  her  hands  such  a  tremendous 
power  for  harm  against  him  as  their  marriage  certi- 
ficate. His  trust  was  not  misplaced,  for  she  was 
of  a  generous  and  noble  nature,  incapable  of  petty 
meanness  or  revenge.  She  solemnly  promised  that 
she  would  never  publish  the  fact  of  the  marriage 
during  his  lifetime  without  his  consent,  and  to  that 
promise  she  adhered  in  after  years  through  good 
report  and  evil,  despite  the  grossest  attacks  on 
her  character,  though  she  was  publicly  forsworn  in 
Parliament,  and  privately  repudiated  by  her  husband. 


102  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

She  held  all  the  documentary  proofs  of  her  marriage  ; 
she  could  have  silenced  her  calumniators  with  a 
word  ;  but  the  proofs  were  never  produced,  the  word 
was  never  spoken.  Her  conscience  was  clear  to 
herself,  she  was  void  of  offence  before  God,  and  she 
let  the  world  say  what  it  would.  The  result  justi- 
fied her  wisdom.  Such  was  the  uprightness  of  her 
character  that  silence  proved  her  most  effectual 
weapon,  and  won  for  her  the  belief  and  respect  of 
honourable  men  and  women. 

There  remains  to  be  considered  the  clergyman 
who  performed  the  marriage  ceremony,  the  Rev. 
Robert  Burt.  The  Prince  of  Wales  faithfully  kept 
his  promise  to  give  him  preferment.  In  addition  to 
the  ^500  paid  down,  he  appointed  him  one  of  his 
domestic  chaplains,  and  obtained  for  him  the  com- 
fortable living  of  Twickenham  (the  parish  in  which 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  villa  was  situated).  On  the 
strength  of  these  good  things  Mr.  Burt  married,  and 
before  long  had  a  growing  family.  His  ambitions 
grew  with  his  needs  ;  for  his  gratitude  was  of  the 
kind  which  has  a  keen  sense  of  favours  to  come. 
Notwithstanding  all  that  the  Prince  had  done  for 
him,  we  find  him,  six  years  after  the  marriage, 
writing  the  following  letter,  which  gives  a  curious 
insight  into  the  character  of  the  man  : — 

"  The  Reverend  Robert  Burt  to  H.R.H.  the 
Prince  of  Wales. 

"  TWICKENHAM  VICARAGE, 
February  25,  1791. 

"SiR, — I  most  humbly  beg  to  notify  to  Your 
Royal  Highness  the  death  of  Dr.  Tarrant,  Dean  of 


THE   MARRIAGE  103 

Peterborough,  Rector  of  St.  George's,  Bloomsbury, 
and  Prebendary  of  Rochester.  The  above  prefer- 
ments being  all  in  the  gift  of  the  Crown,  I  have 
thought  it  my  duty  to  announce  them  accord- 
ingly to  Your  Royal  Highness.  The  Prebend  of 
Rochester,  being  the  least  and  most  insignificant  in 
value,  I  take  the  liberty  to  mention  it  particularly  to 
Your  Royal  Highness,  and  to  solicit  most  humbly 
and  earnestly  your  influence  and  interposition  with 
the  Lord  Chancellor  to  obtain  it  for  me.  Your 
Royal  Highness  may  be  assured  that  I  should  not 
have  made  the  present  application  was  I  not  in  a 
situation  to  require  your  gracious  aid  and  protection, 
and  at  the  same  time  most  sensible  how  ready  the 
Lord  Chancellor  is  upon  all  occasions  to  testify  his 
respect  and  deference  to  Your  Royal  Highness  by 
paying  due  attention  to  your  recommendations :  of 
this  I  have  already  been  frequently  apprised  with- 
out having  occasion  to  refer  to  my  own  particular 
case,  when  Your  Royal  Highness  did  me  the 
honour  last  year  to  have  my  name  mentioned  to 
the  Lord  Chancellor.  It  can  never  be  in  my 
power  to  testify  my  gratitude  for  the  indulgences 
already  conferred  on  me  by  Your  Royal  Highness, 
nor  am  I  able  in  any  degree  to  express  them 
as  my  heart  would  dictate.  I  can  only  affirm 
that  I  shall  ever  retain  the  liveliest  sense  of  my 
obligations  to  you,  and  continually  pray  for  Your 
Royal  Highness's  health  and  happiness  as  long  as 
I  have  breath.  From  Your  Royal  Highness's  most 
gracious  assurance  of  protection  and  patronage 
whenever  an  opportunity  should  offer,  I  have 
every  reason  to  flatter  myself  with  success  from 


io4  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

the  strength  and  validity  of  Your    Royal   recom- 
mendation. 

"  Let  me  once  more  therefore  beg  leave  to  solicit 
Your  Royal  Highness's  interposition  on  my  behalf, 
and  to  entreat  your  assistance. 

"In  the  meanwhile  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  Sir, 
your  Royal  Highness's  most  dutiful  and  faithful 
servant, 

"  ROBERT  BURT." 

The  Prince  gave  this  letter  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert, 
who  appended  to  it  the  following  memorandum  in 
her  own  handwriting  : — 

"  The  writer  of  this  letter,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Burt, 
is  the   clergyman  that  performed  the  ceremony  of 
marriage  of  H.R.H.  the  Prince,  and  of  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert. 

(Signed} 
"  MARIA  FITZHERBERT." 

The  clergyman's  letter,  with  the  above  memo- 
randum written  on  the  back,  was  kept  by  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  among  h*er  private  papers,  and  in  1833 
she  placed  it,  with  other  documents,  at  Coutts's 
Bank.1  It  forms  the  last  link  of  the  chain  of 

1  I  am  allowed  to  publish  the  letter  and  memorandum  here  by 
gracious  permission  of  His  Majesty  the  King.  This  document  is 
No.  5  on  the  list  given  by  Langdale  (op,  cit.  p.  87) :  "  Memorandum 
written  by  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  attached  to  a  letter  written  by  the  clergy- 
man who  performed  the  marriage  ceremony." 

This  document  has  served  as  a  pretext  for  several  impostors  to 
declare  that  they  were  the  children  (or  descendants  of  the  children) 
of  the  illegal  marriage  of  George  IV.  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  They 
declared  that  the  proofs  of  their  paternity  were  to  be  found  in  the 
Fitzherbert  papers  at  Coutts's  Bank,  more  particularly  in  this  docu- 


THE   MARRIAGE  105 

evidence  which  proves  beyond  all  doubt  the  fact 
that  a  ceremony  of  marriage  took  place  between 
George,  Prince  of  Wales,  and  Maria  Fitzherbert. 
It  may  be  added  that  Mr.  Burt  did  not  obtain 
the  coveted  preferment.  Perhaps  the  Prince  of 
Wales  felt  that  he  had  done  enough  for  him,  and 
that  it  was  time  to  make  a  stand.  Perhaps  he  had 
not  the  power,  for  at  the  time  the  application  was 
made  (1791)  the  Prince  was  much  out  of  favour 
with  the  King  and  the  Government,  and  he  had  no 
influence  even  in  the  smallest  matters.  In  any  case 
the  Prince  was  spared  further  annoyance  from  this 
importunate  cleric.  Mr.  Burt  died  some  eight 
months  after  he  had  written  this  letter,  on  October 
17,  1791,  at  the  age  of  thirty-one.  He  is  said  to 
have  confessed  on  his  deathbed1  that  he  had  per- 
formed the  marriage  between  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  Mr.  Burt's  name,  however, 
was  never  mentioned  in  the  connection,  and  it  was 
believed  until  recently  that  Mr.  Johnes  Knight  had 
been  the  officiating  clergyman.  At  the  time  of  the 
marriage  it  was  generally  asserted  that  the  ceremony 
had  been  performed  by  a  Roman  Catholic  priest, 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

meat,  and  for  that  reason  the  papers  were  never  published.  The 
publication  of  the  document  in  full  now  is  a  convincing  proof  of  the 
falsehood  of  their  statements,  which  had  not  the  slightest  foundation 
in  fact.  Neither  by  her  first  or  second  marriage,  nor  by  her  third 
marriage  with  George,  Prince  of  Wales,  had  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  any 
children. 

1  "  Diary  of  Lord  Colchester,"  vol.  i.  p.  68. 


CHAPTER   VII1 

THE  VALIDITY  OF  THE   MARRIAGE 

REFERENCE  has  been  made  to  the  Royal  Marriage 
Act  of  1772,  of  which  Act  the  Prince  of  Wales's 
marriage  to  Mrs.  Fitzhenbert  was  a  flagrant  viola- 
tion. It  will  be  well,  therefore,  to  review  briefly 
the  provisions  of  that  Act,  and  the  causes  which 
led  to  its  passing  into  law.  We  will  then  pass  to 
other  considerations  which  affected  this  marriage 
in  its  civil  and  religious  aspect. 

The  Royal  Marriage  Act  owed  its  origin  to  the 
clandestine  marriages  of  George  III.'s  two  brothers, 
the  Duke  of  Gloucester  and  the  Duke  of  Cumber- 
land, to  English  subjects  without  the  consent  of 
the  King. 

The  first  of  these  marriages,  though  it  was  not 
declared  until  later  than  the  second,  was  that  of 
the  Duke  of  Gloucester z  to  the  Dowager  Countess 
Waldegrave,  who  by  birth  was  the  illegitimate 
daughter  of  Sir  Edward  Walpole  (eldest  son  of 
the  great  Minister,  and  brother  of  Horace  Walpole) 
by  Mary  Clement,  a  milliner's  apprentice.  Lady 

1  This  chapter  is  an  interpolation  dealing  with  the  legality  and 
validity  of  the  marriage,  and  does  not  affect  the  narrative.  The  word 
"  validity  "  is  used  in  reference  to  the  Canon  Law,  and  "  legality  " 
in  connection  with  the  Civil  Law. 

8  William  Henry,  first  Duke  of  Gloucester,  third  son  of  Frederick, 
Prince  of  Wales  (1743-1805). 

106 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE        107 

Waldegrave  was  the  second  of  the  three  beautiful 
daughters  born  of  this  connection,  Laura,  Maria, 
and  Charlotte.  Their  paternity  was  fully  acknow- 
ledged by  their  father,  who  gave  them  his  name,  and 
intended  to  have  married  the  mother,  but  was  pre- 
vented by  her  early  death.  His  daughters  grew  up 
under  his  immediate  care,  and  he  gave  them  every 
advantage  of  wealth  and  education.  They  were 
received  everywhere,  except  at  Court,  and  all  three 
made  good  marriages.  Laura  married  the  Rev.  the 
Hon.  Frederick  Keppel,  brother  of  the  Earl  of 
Albemarle,  who  subsequently  became  Bishop  of 
Exeter;  Maria,  James,  Earl  Waldegrave;  and 
Charlotte,  Lord  Huntingtower,  afterwards  Earl  of 
Dysart.  Lord  Waldegrave,  who  was  old  enough 
to  be  Maria's  father,  died  a  few  years  after  the 
marriage,  leaving  his  widow  with  three  daughters  ; 1 
they  had  no  son.  Lady  Waldegrave  was  rich  and 
beautiful,  highly  accomplished,  very  dignified,  and 
most  correct  in  her  conduct  and  principles.  Many 
admirers  were  at  her  feet,  but  she  rejected  them  all, 
and  to  the  astonishment  of  her  friends  engaged  in 
a  dalliance  with  the  unattractive  Duke  of  Gloucester. 
The  Duke  fell  in  love  with  the  young  widow  when 
he  was  only  nineteen,  and  despite  all  obstacles 
and  remonstrances  persisted  in  his  suit  for  two 
or  three  years. 

1  The  Waldegrave  sisters  were  famous  for  their  beauty.  The 
eldest,  Elizabeth  Laura,  married  her  first  cousin,  George,  Earl 
Waldegrave.  The  second,  Charlotte  Maria,  married  the  Earl  of 
Euston,  afterwards  Duke  of  Grafton.  The  third,  Anne  Horatia, 
married  Admiral  Lord  Hugh  Seymour,  by  whom  she  had  a  large 
family.  The  youngest  of  her  children,  Mary  Seymour,  was  after- 
wards adopted  by  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  Of  this  we  shall  have  occasion 
to  speak  later. 


io8  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

At  last  Lady  Waldegrave  yielded  to  the  impor- 
tunities of  her  royal  lover,  and  they  were  secretly 
married,  without  witnesses,  in  the  drawing-room  of 
Lady  Waldegrave's  town  house,'  by  her  domestic 
chaplain,  on  September  6,  1 766.  The  marriage  was 
not  declared  ;  they  did  not  live  in  the  same  house, 
and  to  outward  semblance  things  went  on  much  as 
before,  though  the  lady's  liveries  and  establishment 
became  semi-royal.  The  Duke  visited  her  daily, 
and  attended  her  everywhere  in  public,  when  he 
treated  her  with  the  most  profound  respect.  Some 
said  they  were  married,  for  it  seemed  unlikely  that 
an  earl's  widow  of  virtue  and  pride  would  become 
the  mistress  of  a  prince  of  the  blood.  Others  said 
they  were  not,  and  they  held  it  impossible,  owing  to 
her  illegitimacy,  that  Lady  Waldegrave  could  ever 
be  acknowledged  as  the  sister-in-law  of  the  reigning 
Sovereign.  So  matters  went  on  for  six  years  after 
the  secret  marriage,  and  then,  in  June  1772,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  passing  of  the  Royal  Marriage  Act 
(brought  about  by  the  marriage  of  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland),  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  formally  com- 
municated the  fact  of  his  marriage  to  the  King. 
The  King,  though  he  had  suspected  the  truth, 
was  greatly  annoyed  at  its  being  confirmed.  He 
deputed  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  and  the  Bishop  of  London  to  inquire 
into  the  legality  of  the  marriage,  as  it  had  taken 
place  without  witnesses.  The  Duke  said  that  if 
there  were  any  doubt  cast  upon  the  marriage 
he  would  marry  the  Duchess  again,  but  the  com- 
mittee reported  that  they  were  satisfied  with 
its  legality.  The  King  therefore  acknowledged 


THE   DUCHESS   OF   GLOUCESTER 
(nt'e  WALPOLE) 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE       109 

the  marriage,  but  for  a  long  time  he  refused  to  be 
reconciled  to  his  brother,  and  spoke  of  him  with 
sorrow,  and  of  his  wife  with  bitterness.  "  I  never 
can,"  he  writes,  "think  of  placing  her  in  a  situation 
to  answer  her  extreme  pride  and  vanity."1  Time, 
however,  the  submissive  attitude  of  the  Duke,  and 
the  irreproachable  conduct  of  the  Duchess,  worked 
a  change.  They  lived  in  exile  for  years,  but 
when  at  last  they  returned  to  England  the  King 
received  them  at  court,  and  thereafter  showed  the 
greatest  kindness  to  them,  and  to  their  two  children, 
Prince  William  Frederick,  and  the  Princess  Sophia 
of  Gloucester.2 

The  second  marriage  was  that  of  the  King's 
youngest  brother,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,3  to 
Anne,  daughter  of  Lord  Irnham  (afterwards  Earl 
of  Carhampton),  the  widow  of  a  Derbyshire  squire, 
Andrew  Horton  of  Catton.  This  marriage,  though 
it  took  place  subsequently  to  that  of  the  Duke  of 
Gloucester,  was  declared  first.  The  Duchess  of 
Cumberland  was  very  different  to  the  Duchess  of 
Gloucester.  She  was  well  born,  young  and  beauti- 
ful, but  lacked  the  Duchess  of  Gloucester's  pride 
and  high  character.  She  was  a  born  intrigante  and 
devoted  to  a  life  of  pleasure.  Her  appearance  and 
her  friends  were  what  is  called  "fast,"  but  nothing 

1  Brougham's  "Statesmen  of  the  Time  of  George  III.,"  ed.  1858. 

2  Prince  William  Frederick  succeeded  his  father  as  second  Duke 
of  Gloucester  in  1805.     He  married  in  1816  his  cousin,  Princess  Mary, 
fourth  daughter  of  George  III.     There  was  no  issue  of  this  marriage. 
The   Duke  died  in   1834,  the   Duchess  in    1857.     Princess   Sophia 
Matilda  of  Gloucester  never  married.      She  was  one  of  the  god- 
mothers, by  proxy,  of  his  present  Majesty,  King  Edward  VII. 

3  Henry  Frederick,  Duke  of  Cumberland  (1745-1790),  fourth  son 
of  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales. 


no  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

definite  was  ever  alleged  against  her  virtue.  Her 
marriage  to  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  took  place  on 
October  2,  1771,  at  the  lady's  house  in  Hertford 
Street,  Mayfair.1  The  marriage  was  in  regular  order, 
and  there  was  little  or  no  concealment.  The  newly- 
wedded  pair  went  to  France  for  their  honeymoon, 
and  the  Duke  wrote  from  Calais  and  announced  his 
marriage  to  the  King  as  though  it  were  a  matter  of 
course.  George  III.  was  greatly  incensed,  not  only 
at  the  marriage,  but  at  the  manner  in  which  his 
brother  had  thought  fit  to  make  it  known  to  him. 
He  sent  an  intimation  to  the  foreign  ambassadors 
and  ministers  that  he  would  be  obliged  if  they 
would  abstain  from  visiting  Cumberland  House. 
The  Lord  Chamberlain  sent  out  a  notice  to  the 
fashionable  world,  to  the  effect  that  all  those  who 
waited  on  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Cumberland 
would  no  longer  be  received  at  Court.  This  rule 
became  practically  a  dead-letter,  for  though  the 
King  never  forgave  his  brother  and  never  received 
the  Duchess,  he  could  not  prevent  people  from 
visiting  them.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was  one  of  the 
greatest  offenders  in  this  respect,  for  he  was  always 
at  Cumberland  House,  and  society  followed  his 
lead.  The  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Cumberland 
retaliated  by  setting  the  King  at  defiance.  They 
knew,  despite  all  the  Sovereign  could  say  or  do, 
their  marriage  was  perfectly  legal,  and  their  children 
(if  they  had  any)  came  within  the  line  of  succession 
to  the  throne.2  The  King  knew  this  too,  and  was 

1  The  proofs  of  the  marriage,  obtained  by  order  of  the  King  in  1773, 
are  preserved  in  the  Privy  Council  Office. 

2  There  was  no  issue  from  the  marriage. 


VALIDITY   OF  THE   MARRIAGE       in 

determined  to  prevent  such  marriages  in  future. 
He  took  counsel  with  his  Ministers  forthwith,  and 
the  result  was  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  of  1772. 

The  Duke  of  Cumberland's  marriage  was  thus 
the  immediate  cause  of  the  Royal  Marriage  Act,  but 
there  were  other  reasons  as  well.  George  III.,  who 
was  a  despot  where  his  family  were  concerned,  had 
long  contemplated  some  such  measure.  Though 
he  was  the  first  of  our  Hanoverian  Kings  to  be 
born  and  bred  in  England,  he  had  inherited  on  this 
point  the  narrow  views  of  his  German  mother,  who 
ranked  the  pettiest  prince  of  Germany  above  the 
noblest  of  England's  dukes.  It  was  an  article  of 
faith  with  her  that  suitable  brides  for  her  sons  were 
only  to  be  found  in  Germany.  George  III.  was  a 
firm  believer  in  this  anti-English  policy.  He  was 
a  conscientious  man,  and  not  one  who  would  shrink 
from  his  convictions ;  he  had  himself  done  violence 
to  his  affections  in  not  marrying  the  beautiful  Lady 
Sarah  Lennox,  whom  he  loved.  True  to  his  theory, 
he  had  sent  to  Germany  for  his  bride,  and  there  had 
come  to  him  Charlotte  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz. 

Apart  from  this  German  bias  it  must  be  admitted 
that  there  was  much  to  be  said  on  the  King's  side. 
His  brothers,  doubtless,  might  have  found  suitable 
consorts  among  the  daughters  of  the  English  nobility, 
but  such  alliances  as  the  clandestine  marriages  of 
the  Dukes  of  Gloucester  and  Cumberland  did  not 
add  to  the  prestige  of  the  royal  house.  The  King 
had  a  numerous  family  growing  up  of  sons  and 
daughters,  and  it  was  clearly  desirable  that  he  should 
have  the  power  to  prevent  them  from  contracting 
imprudent  marriages  at  an  early  age.  Any  father 


ii2  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

of  a  family  should  have  such  power,  how  much  more 
then  the  King  of  England.  But  George  III.  aimed 
at  far  more  than  reasonable  parental  authority.  He 
wished  to  be  invested  with  despotic  power,  and  to 
be  able  to  forbid  the  marriages  of  his  sons  and 
daughters,  and  of  all  his  relatives  (descendants  of 
George  II.),  not  only  until  a  fixed  age  but  for  all 
time.  This  is  clearly  shown  by  the  message  he  sent 
to  Parliament  after  the  Duke  of  Cumberland's 
marriage.  He  stated  that  the  right  of  approving 
of  all  marriages  in  the  royal  family  had  ever  be- 
longed to  the  King  as  a  matter  of  public  weal,  and 
he  recommended  Parliament  to  remedy  the  defect 
in  the  laws  forthwith. 

In  consequence  of  the  royal  message,  on  February 
17,  1772,  a  Bill  was  brought  into  Parliament  to  give 
the  King  the  authority  he  desired,  entitled  "An  Act 
for  the  better  regulating  of  the  future  Marriages  of 
the  Royal  Family."  The  Bill  was  strongly  opposed 
in  all  its  stages  as  despotic  and  un-English.  In  the 
House  of  Lords,  Lord  Rockingham  opposed  it  on 
the  supposition  that  the  royal  family  might  in  time 
become  so  numerous  as  to  include  many  thousand 
individuals — a  not  unlikely  supposition,  for  Queen 
Charlotte  had  already  presented  her  husband  with 
many  children,  and  seemed  likely  to  present  him 
with  as  many  more.  Lord  Camden  deprecated  the 
power  to  annul  a  marriage  contracted  between 
persons  who  had  attained  their  majority,  that  is, 
twenty-one  years.  Lord  Radnor  spoke  against  the 
Bill  because  it  did  not  guard  against  what  he 
considered  to  be  a  greater  danger — the  improper 
marriages  of  Princes  on  the  throne.  The  King 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE       113 

might  marry  whom  he  would,  but  his  relatives  and 
children  only  whom  he  pleased.  Equally  vigorous 
was  the  opposition  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  Bill  was  debated  with  locked  doors.  Fox 
declared  that  the  measure  was  "  big  with  mischief, 
and  likely  to  bring  upon  the  country  disorder  and 
confusion ;  he  would  give  it  his  most  determined 
opposition  in  every  part  and  at  every  stage."  The 
discussion  was  continued  with  great  acrimony,  and 
was  protracted  until  long  after  midnight,  an  unusual 
thing  in  those  days.  At  last  the  Government  suc- 
ceeded in  carrying  the  second  reading. 

The  Bill  was  again  opposed  in  the  Lords  on  its 
going  into  Committee.  Lord  Folkestone  made  an 
able  speech  against  it.  He  reviewed  historically 
the  claim  put  forward  by  the  Crown.  He  alluded 
delicately  to  the  recent  marriage  of  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland  (the  Duke  of  Gloucester's  marriage 
had  not  then  been  declared),  and  traced  the  various 
instances  in  which  not  only  Princes  but  Kings  of 
England  had  married  into  families  other  than  royal, 
not  only  to  their  own  happiness,  but  to  the  benefit 
of  the  nation.  He  cited  Queen  Elizabeth  and 
Queen  Anne  as  two  of  England's  sovereigns  who 
were  children  of  such  marriages  as  this  Bill  pro- 
posed to  condemn.  He  declared  the  measure  to 
be  "un-English,  arbitrary,  opposed  to  natural  law, 
and  contrary  to  the  law  of  God."  The  great  Lord 
Chatham,  who  was  unable  to  be  present  through 
illness,  wrote  a  letter,  which  was  read  in  the  course 
of  debate,  strongly  condemning  the  Bill.  He  de- 
scribed it  as  "new-fangled,"  and  the  powers  given 
to  the  King  as  "  wanton  and  tyrannical."  The 

VOL.   I.  H 


ii4  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

most  strenuous  opposition,  however,  only  succeeded 
in  effecting  some  modifications  in  the  Bill.  It  was 
forced  through  Parliament,  and  received  the  Royal 
Assent  in  March  1772.  In  its  final  form  it  ran 
as  follows  : l — 

"As  His  Majesty,  from  His  Paternal  Affection 
to  His  Family,  and  His  Royal  Concern  for  the 
future  Welfare  of  His  People,  and  the  Honour  and 
Dignity  of  His  Crown,  was  graciously  pleased  to 
recommend  to  His  Parliament  to  take  into  their 
serious  consideration,  Whether  it  might  not  be 
expedient  to  supply  the  Defect  of  the  Laws  now 
in  being  ;  and  by  some  new  Provision,  more  effectu- 
ally to  guard  the  Descendants  of  George  II.  (other 
than  the  Issue  of  Princesses  who  have  married, 
or  may  hereafter  marry,  into  foreign  Families) 
from  marrying  without  the  Approbation  of  His 
Majesty,  His  Heirs,  &c.  first  obtained:  be  it 
enacted — 

"That  no  Descendant  of  the  Body  of  His  late 
Majesty  King  George  II.,  Male  or  Female  (other 
than  the  Issue  of  Princesses  who  have  married,  or 
may  hereafter  marry,  into  foreign  Families),  shall 
be  capable  of  contracting  Matrimony  without  the 
previous  Consent  of  His  Majesty,  His  Heirs,  &c., 
signified  under  the  Great  Seal,  and  declared  in 
Council  (which  Consent,  to  preserve  the  Memory 
thereof,  is  hereby  directed  to  be  set  out  in  the 
Licence  and  Register  of  Marriage,  and  to  be 
entered  in  the  Books  of  the  Privy  Council)  ;  and 
that  every  Marriage  or  Matrimonial  Contract  of 

1  "An  Abstract  of  an  Act  for  the   better  regulating  the  Future 
Marriages  of  the  Royal  Family."    Georgii  III.,  A.D.  1772. 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE      115 

any  such  Descendant,  without  such  Consent  first 
obtained,  shall  be  void. 

"  In  case  such  Descendant  of  George  II.,  being 
above  the  age  of  25  Years,  shall  persist  in  the 
Resolution  to  contract  a  Marriage  disapproved 
of  by  the  King,  His  Heirs,  &c.,  that  then  such 
Descendant,  upon  giving  Notice  to  the  King's 
Privy  Council,  which  Notice  is  hereby  directed 
to  be  entered  in  the  Books  thereof,  may,  at  any 
Time  from  the  Expiration  of  Twelve  Calendar 
Months  after  such  notice  given  as  aforesaid,  con- 
tract such  Marriage ;  and  such  Marriage  with  the 
Person  before  proposed,  and  rejected,  may  be  duly 
solemnised,  without  the  previous  Consent  of  His 
Majesty,  or  Successors ;  and  shall  be  good  unless 
both  Houses  of  Parliament  shall,  before  the  Ex- 
piration of  the  said  Twelve  Months,  expressly 
declare  their  Disapprobation  thereof. 

"  Every  person  who  shall  wilfully  presume  to 
solemnise,  or  to  assist,  or  to  be  present  at  the 
Celebration  of  any  Marriage  with  any  such  De- 
scendant, or  at  his  or  her  making  any  Matrimonial 
Contract,  without  such  Consent  as  aforesaid  first 
obtained,  except  in  the  case  above  mentioned,  shall, 
being  duly  convicted  thereof,  suffer  the  Penalties 
ordained  by  the  Statute  of  Provision  and  Premunire 
made  16  Rich.  II."1 

The  powers  of  the  Sovereign,  it  will  be  seen,  are 
limited  in  this  Act.  The  age  limit  is  raised  from 
twenty-one  to  twenty-five  years  (no  excessive  limit), 
after  that  the  ultimate  appeal  is  to  Parliament.  If 
Parliament,  being  duly  notified,  does  not  forbid  the 

1  "Public  General  Acts."     12  George  III. 


n6  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

marriage  in  dispute  within  twelve  months,  the 
King's  objection  can  be  over-ruled  and  the 
marriage  duly  solemnised.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  scope  of  the  Bill  includes  not  only  the  Sove- 
reign's children  and  those  in  direct  succession  to 
the  throne,  but  all  members  of  the  royal  family, 
even  the  most  remote,  other  than  the  issue  of 
British  princesses  who  have  married  into  foreign 
families.  The  powers  given  are  therefore  very 
extensive ;  the  happiness  of  many  is  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  Sovereign,  and  it  depends  chiefly  upon 
him  whether  the  Act  is  administered  with  wisdom 
and  judgment,  or  whether  it  degenerates  into  an 
instrument  of  tyranny.  The  position  of  the  Sove- 
reign in  this  matter  is  a  delicate  and  difficult  one. 
Some  such  Act  as  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  is  neces- 
sary, and  it  may  be  further  contended  in  its  favour 
that,  though  this  one  has  been  in  existence  for  over 
a  century,  it  has  always  been  administered  with 
discretion  j1  except,  perhaps,  in  one  or  two  instances 
during  the  reign  of  George  III.  It  was  this  lack 
of  judgment  on  the  part  of  George  III.  which 
probably  caused  the  Act  to  recoil  upon  the  domestic 
happiness  of  some  of  his  children,  and  ultimately 
on  himself.  Into  these  cases  it  would  serve  no 
good  purpose  to  enter  here. 

There  is  a  vulgar  error  that  the  Royal  Marriage 
Act  forbids  marriages  between  princes  and  prin- 
cesses of  the  blood  and  persons  other  than  royal, 
but  it  does  nothing  of  the  kind.  The  consent  of 

1  In  proof  of  this  contention  it  may  be  stated  that  no  appeal  to 
Parliament  against  the  Sovereign's  decision  has  ever  been  made  by 
any  prince  or  princess  of  the  blood  royal  since  the  passing  of 
the  Act. 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE      117 

the  Sovereign  is  absolutely  necessary  up  to  the  age 
of  twenty-five,  whether  the  intended  marriage  be 
with  a  royal  personage  or  not.  And  with  the  Sove- 
reign's consent  the  marriage  of  a  prince  or  princess 
of  the  blood  royal  with  a  subject,  even  with  a  com- 
moner, would  be  perfectly  legal.  The  words  "  even 
with  a  commoner  "  need  some  explanation,  for  there 
are  many  English  commoners  of  royal  descent — 
descended  legitimately  from  our  Plantagenet  and 
Tudor  kings.  In  England  there  has  never  been 
(at  least  until  recently)  that  exaggerated  value  of 
titles,  quti  titles,  which  obtains  in  many  European 
countries,  where  almost  every  one  of  any  position  is 
possessed  of  some  high-sounding  prefix,  often  signi- 
fying little  or  nothing.  In  England  there  are  many 
commoners  of  ancient  lineage  who  can  point  to  a 
more  distinguished  descent  than  many  a  peer.1 
With  the  consent  of  the  Sovereign  the  Royal 
Marriage  Act  offers  no  obstacle  to  the  marriage 
of  such  an  one  to  any  member  of  the  royal  family, 
who,  subject  to  this  condition,  is  free  to  wed  with 
any  English  subject,  noble,  gentle,  or  simple. 

Still  the  Act  was  intensely  unpopular  ;  it  was  re- 
garded as  un-English,  and  the  opposition  to  it  lasted 
long  after  it  became  law.  By  many  it  was  thought  to 
be  a  short-lived  measure,  one  that  would  be  repealed, 
or  fall  into  desuetude,  on  the  death  of  George  III., 
and  one  which  even  during  his  lifetime  could  be 
evaded  with  impunity.  .  The  Prince  of  Wales  openly 
said  that  he  would  repeal  the  Act  when  he  came 

1  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  is  a  case  in  point.  She  was  better  born  and 
better  connected  than  many  a  peeress,  though  the  table  of  precedence 
gave  her  no  place. 


n8  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

to  the  throne,  and  as  the  whole  Whig  party  were 
opposed  to  it,  it  was  thought  that  even  a  change  of 
Government  would  probably  result  in  modifying  its 
provisions.  It  was  said  that  it  was  contrary  to  the 
common  law  of  England,  and  would  break  down 
at  the  first  test ;  the  penalties  of  premunire  were 
so  vague  as  to  be  practically  non-existent.  It  is 
possible  that  if  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  had  been 
the  only  obstacle,  the  marriage  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
to  the  Prince  of  Wales  would  have  been  acknow- 
ledged, and  she  would  have  been  recognised,  not  as 
Princess  of  Wales  (that,  of  course,  was  impossible), 
but  as  the  wife  of  her  husband. 

There  existed  a  far  more  serious  difficulty.  The 
fact  that  she  was  a  Roman  Catholic  constituted  an 
almost  insuperable  obstacle  to  the  avowal  of  the 
marriage.  According  to  Section  IX.  of  the  Act  of 
1689 — "  An  Act  for  declaring  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  the  subject  and  settling  the  succession  of  the 
Crown" — the  Prince's  marriage  to  a  Roman  Catholic 
(if  regular)  would  have  endangered  his  succession 
to  the  throne.  The  clause  is  sufficiently  explicit : 

"And  whereas  it  hath  been  found  by  experience 
that  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  safety  and  welfare 
of  this  Protestant  Kingdom  to  be  governed  by  a 
Popish  Prince,  or  any  King  or  Queen  marrying  a 
Papist,  the  said  Lords  Spiritual  and  Temporal,  and 
Commons,  do  further  pray  that  it  may  be  enacted, 
that  all  and  every  person  and  persons  that  is,  are,  or 
shall  be  reconciled  to,  or  shall  hold  communion  with, 
the  See  or  Church  of  Rome,  or  shall  profess  the 
Popish  religion,  or  shall  marry  a  Papist,  shall  be 
excluded  and  be  for  ever  incapable  to  inherit, 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE      119 

possess,  or  enjoy  the  Crown  and  Government  of  this 
realm,  and  Ireland,  and  the  dominions  thereunto 
belonging,  or  any  part  of  the  same,  or  to  have,  use, 
or  exercise  any  regal  power,  authority,  or  jurisdiction 
within  the  same ;  and  in  all  and  every  such  case  or 
cases  the  people  of  these  realms  shall  be  and  are 
hereby  absolved  of  their  allegiance ;  and  the  said 
Crown  and  Government  shall  from  time  to  time 
descend  to,  and  be  enjoyed  by,  such  person  or 
persons,  being  Protestants,  as  should  have  inherited 
and  enjoyed  the  same  in  case  the  said  person  or 
persons  so  reconciled,  holding  communion,  or  pro- 
fessing, or  marrying  aforesaid,  were  naturally  dead." 
Now  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  a  Roman  Catholic 
born  and  bred,  and  one  who  openly  professed  the 
principles  of  her  religion.  Therefore  at  first  sight  it 
would  seem  that  the  Prince  of  Wales,  in  marrying 
her,  had,  by  violating  the  clause  of  the  Act  which 
placed  his  family  on  the  throne,  forfeited  his  right 
to  inherit  the  Crown  as  though,  in  the  words  of  the 
Act,  he  were  "naturally  dead,"  and  the  succession 
would  pass  to  his  next  brother  Frederick,  Duke  of 
York.  The  fact  that  the  marriage  was  performed 
by  a  clergyman  of  the  Established  Church  accord- 
ing to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England  made  no 
difference,  for  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  did  not  abjure  her 
religion  thereby.  But,  argued  the  Prince's  friends 
(and  doubtless  the  Prince  himself),  the  Prince  did 
not  and  could  not  legally  marry  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
because  of  the  operation  of  the  Royal  Marriage 
Act  of  1772,  which  declared  such  marriages  to  be 
null  and  void  in  law.  That  these  apologists  were 
not  sure  of  their  ground  is  shown  by  the  great  care 


120  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

which  was  taken  to  keep  the  marriage  secret  at  the 
time  ;  and  when,  later,  some  part  of  the  truth  leaked 
out,  they  felt  bound  to  deny  not  only  the  marriage, 
but  that  any  form  or  ceremony  had  taken  place  at 
all.  It  is  a  nice  point  of  law  how  far  the  sub- 
sequent Royal  Marriage  Act  affected  this  clause 
in  the  Act  of  Settlement,  and  it  is  one  on  which 
great  constitutional  lawyers  differ.  According  to  Sir 
Arthur  Pigott  the  marriage  was  irregular  but  valid, 
and  being  a  marriage  between  the  heir-apparent 
and  a  Roman  Catholic,  operated  by  the  provisions 
of  the  Act  of  Settlement  to  a  total  defeasance  of 
the  Crown. 

Lord   Brougham  also,   who   had  considered  the 
subject   well,    was   of    the    opinion   that    the    plea 
put  forward  by  the  friends  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
that  the  marriage  was    illegal,   and    therefore   the 
Act   of    Settlement   was    not    violated,    could    not 
be  maintained.      He  says,   "It  was  in  discussing 
this   question   ever   contended,    that   the   marriage 
being  illegal,   as  having  been   contracted   without 
the  royal  assent,  which  the   Royal   Marriage   Act 
requires,  there  could  be  no  forfeiture,  the  ceremony 
being   a   mere   nullity ;    but   all   lawyers   agree   in 
that  acts  of  various  kinds,  both  by  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  are  followed  by  forfeiture  of  the 
party's  rights  who  commits  the  acts  as  if  he  were 
naturally  dead,  and  by  the  succession  of  the  King's 
heir,  the  forfeiture  being  denounced  in  order  to  deter 
from  even  the  attempt  to  do  the  thing  forbidden, 
how  ineffectual  soever  that  thing  might  be  in  itself 
for   any  purpose  save   the   incurring   the   penalty. 
Indeed   the   case   of   bigamy    is   precisely   of  this 


THE   DUCHESS   OF   CUMBERLAND 

(nt'e  LUTTRELL) 
(After  the  Painting  by  GEORGE  COSWAY,  R.A.) 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE      121 

description  ;  the  second  wife  has  no  rights  whatever, 
her  marriage  is  a  nullity ;  but  she  and  her  pretended 
husband  incur  the  penalty  of  felony."1 

On  the  other  hand,  as  Brougham  himself  shows, 
the  Act  of  Settlement,  which  fixes  the  penalty  of 
the  Crown's  forfeiture  on  any  member  of  the  royal 
family  who  marries  a  Roman  Catholic,  is  framed, 
like  most  Acts  of  Parliament,  in  a  careless  and 
clumsy  manner.  He  says  :  "  No  means  of  carrying 
it  into  effect  are  provided,  no  declaration  of  the 
powers  by  whom  the  fact  is  to  be  ascertained  is 
made,  by  what  authority  the  subject  is  to  be 
absolved  from  his  allegiance,  and  that  allegiance 
transferred  from  one  to  another.  It  is  probable 
that  if  the  circumstance  occurred  the  two  Houses  of 
Parliament  would  from  the  necessity  of  the  case  be 
required  to  interpose,  as  in  the  two  precedents  of 
1788  and  1811  of  the  Regency  arising  from  the  ill- 
ness of  George  III.  ;  but  the  statute  is  altogether 
silent,  and  the  whole  enactment  assumed  the  form 
of  a  menace  or  denunciation.  Nevertheless  its 
meaning  is  clear ;  the  intention  is  to  prevent  a 
Roman  Catholic  marriage,  and  to  forfeit  all  rank 
and  title  whatever  of  any  King  or  heir  to  the 
throne  contracting  such  a  marriage."  2 

But  it  is  idle  to  speculate  what  would  have 
happened  if  the  fact  that  the  Prince  of  Wales  had 
gone  through  the  marriage  ceremony  with  a  Roman 
Catholic  had  been  publicly  proclaimed,  for  when 
the  question  arose  later  the  marriage  was  formally 
denied  in  Parliament  on  two  occasions  in  the 
most  uncompromising  terms.  Otherwise  Parliament 

1  Lord  Brougham's  Memoirs.  '2  Brougham,  op,  cit. 


122  MRS.  F1TZHERBERT 

would  probably  have  been  forced  to  intervene,  but 
the  necessity  of  any  action  being  taken  would  have 
had  to  be  made  very  clear,  and  what  the  result  of 
such  action  might  have  been  it  is  impossible  to  say. 
Something  would  depend  upon  the  attitude  of  the 
next  heir  to  the  Crown  ;  and  if  he  were  hostile, 
or  covetous  of  power,  he  could  do  much  to  make 
the  position  of  the  elder  brother  exceedingly 
uncomfortable.  But  no  such  danger  was  to  be 
apprehended  from  the  Duke  of  York.  He  was 
devoted  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  (and  in  after 
years  also  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert),  and  he  always 
declared  that  he  would  never  do  anything  to  em- 
barrass his  brother,  and  to  this  principle  he  loyally 
adhered  throughout  his  life.  The  real  danger,  if 
the  truth  ever  became  known,  lay  in  the  extreme 
Protestant  party  in  England  and  Scotland  (what 
in  our  day  would  be  called  the  "Nonconformist 
Conscience  ")  raising  an  outcry.  The  days  of  the 
Gordon  Riots  were  then  but  as  yesterday.  More- 
over, Prince  Charles  Edward  was  still  alive  in 
exile,  and  excluded  from  inheriting  the  throne 
of  his  ancestors  by  the  very  Act  which  the 
Prince  of  Wales  had  apparently  violated  by 
going  through  the  form  of  marriage  with  a  Roman 
Catholic. 

So  much  for  the  legal  point  of  view.  I  f  we  consider 
the  matter  from  the  civil  aspect  alone,  it  is  evident 
that  the  marriage  was  null  and  void  in  law,  and  not 
only  the  contracting  parties,  but  the  clergyman  who 
performed  the  ceremony,  and  the  witnesses  who 
were  privy  to  it,  committed  an  illegal  act  in  direct 
disobedience  of  the  Royal  Marriage  Act.  The 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE      123 

Prince  of  Wales,  moreover,  in  the  spirit  if  not  in 
the  letter,  violated  the  Act  of  Settlement. 

But  the  marriage  of  any  man  and  woman,  how- 
ever highly  placed,  or  however  humble,  is  not  in 
the  eyes  of  professing  Christians  a  matter  of  civil 
contract  alone.  Both  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  were  professing  Christians  beyond 
all  doubt,  the  one  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, the  other  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 
The  religious  aspect  of  the  case  therefore  forces 
itself  into  the  controversy,  whether  we  will  or  no, 
and  the  question  arises :  How  far  were  these  two 
bound  by  the  solemn  vows  which  they  made  before 
God? 

With  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  the  answer  admits  of  no 
doubt ;  with  her  marriage  was  a  sacrament,  and  the 
vows  which  she  took  were  binding  on  her  so  long 
as  she  lived.  The  illegality  of  the  ceremony  did  not 
affect  its  validity  with  her.  The  legal  point  was  not 
one  on  which  she  could  be  expected  to  feel  strongly, 
for  the  whole  practice  of  her  religion  was  illegal  at 
that  period  ;  the  celebration  of  the  Mass  was  illegal, 
but  the  Sacrament  was  not  therefore  invalid.  But 
it  may  be  objected  that  the  ceremony  was  performed 
by  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  according 
to  the  rites  of  that  Church,  and  the  Church  of  Rome 
does  not  recognise  the  validity  of  Anglican  orders, 
though  she  had  not  at  that  time  condemned  them. 
The  answer  is  that  it  makes  no  difference. 

To  quote  Mr.  Langdale,  a  leading  Roman 
Catholic  layman,  and  a  cousin  of  Mrs.  Fitzher- 
bert, "  The  presence  of  a  Catholic  priest  would 
not,  in  any  way,  have  added  to  the  validity  of  the 


I24  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

marriage  in  the  eyes  of  the  Catholic  Church ;  and, 
therefore,  it  is  fair  to  conclude,  would  not  have  been 
added  to  them  (the  Anglican  forms)  in  those  (i.e. 
the  case)  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  a  well-educated 
Catholic,  especially  likely  to  be  well  informed  on  the 
way  of  conducting  the  marriage  ceremony,  so  as  to 
fulfil  the  forms  and  conditions  required  by  her  own 
Church."1 

What  these  conditions  are  is  clearly  stated  in  an 
article  in  the  Dublin  Review  on  the  subject  of  this 
marriage.2  The  Dublin  .Review  has  always  been 
regarded  as  a  leading  organ  of  educated  Roman 
Catholics. 

"  The  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church  regarding 
marriage  is  plain  and  simple.  She  teaches  that  the 
marriage  contract  itself,  which  is  perfected  by  the 
words,  '  I  take  thee  for  my  wife '  on  the  part  of  the 
man,  and  '  I  take  thee  for  my  husband '  on  the  part 
of  the  woman,  or  by  any  other  words,  or  signs,  by 
which  the  contracting  parties  manifest  their  in- 
tention of  taking  each  other  for  man  and  wife,  is 
a  sacrament. 

1  Langdale,  op.  cit. 

2  The  Dublin  Review,  October  1854.     Lord  Holland's  "  Memoirs  " 
were  published  in  1854,  and  had  the  effect  of  raising  anew  the  question 
of  the  marriage,  and  of  leading  Mr.  Langdale  to  write  his  "  Memoir 
of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert." 

The  article  (from  which  the  above  quotation  is  taken)  was  written 
by  a  canonist  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland,  shortly  after 
the  publication  of  Lord  Holland's  "  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party," 
wherein  doubts  were  cast  upon  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  good  faith  in  the 
matter  of  her  marriage  with  the  Prince  of  Wales  because  she  did 
not  insist  on  the  ceremony  being  performed  by  a  Roman  Catholic 
priest.  Mr.  Langdale  quotes  it  in  his  "  Memoir,"  and  considers  it 
to  be  convincing.  As,  however,  it  was  written  some  time  ago,  I 
submitted  it  to  the  Rev.  M.  Gavin,  S.J.,  who  very  kindly  read  it 
and  gave  me  his  opinion.  This  opinion  is  incorporated  in  the 
footnotes  to  the  quotation. 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE      125 

"  Protestants  are  apt  to  fall  into  a  mistake,  that  it 
is  the  priest  who  administers  the  sacrament  to  the 
wedded  pair.  He  does  no  such  thing.  As  far  as 
the  validity  of  the  contract  and  of  the  sacrament  is 
concerned,  even  when  the  contracting  parties  are 
both  Catholics,  the  priest  need  not  utter  a  word. 
His  presence  is  only  necessary  as  a  witness  to  the 
contract  between  the  parties.1 

"  Up  to  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Trent  the  pre- 
sence of  a  priest  was  not  necessary  for  the  validity 
of  either  the  contract  or  the  sacrament,2  nor  was  it 
by  any  means  to  confer  the  sacrament  that  the 
Council  enacted  a  law  requiring  his  presence.  The 
law  was  made  in  consequence  of  the  abuses  which 
arose  from  clandestine  marriages ;  because  an  im- 
moral person  who  had  married  without  witnesses, 
could  afterwards  deny  the  existence  of  the  contract, 
and  wed  another  publicly,  and  in  the  face  of  the 
Church.  To  prevent  these  abuses  the  Council  of 
Trent  enacted  that  the  parish  priest  of  one  of  the 
contracting  parties,  or  some  other  priest  deputed  by 
him,  and  two  other  witnesses,  should  for  the  future 
(in  posterum)  be  present  (praesento  parochd)  at  the 
marriage  contract.  The  presence  of  the  two  other 
witnesses  is  required  exactly  in  the  same  way  as 
that  of  the  parish  priest.  The  law  is  simply  that 

1  "  This  is  not  quite  correct.     The  presence  of  the  priest  is  required 
for  the  lawfulness  of  the  contract,  and  his  presence  is  required  for  the 
validity  of  the  contract  in  those  countries  at  the  present  day  where 
the  Decree  of  the  Council  of  Trent  has  been  promulgated.     It  has 
not  been  promulgated  in  England."     (Note  by  Father  Gavin.) 

2  "  The  writer  here  seems  to  consider  the  contract  and  the  sacrament 
distinct.     But  whenever  between  baptized  persons  the  contract  is  -valid 
there  ipso  facto  the  sacrament  is  administered."    (Note  by  Father 
Gavin.) 


126  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

the  marriage  should  be  contracted  in  the  presence 
of  three  witnesses,  one  of  whom  should  necessarily 
be  the  parish  priest.  Nor  was  this  law  made  at 
once  obligatory  even  on  Catholics.  By  the  ordi- 
nance of  the  Council  it  is  not  to  have  effect  in  any 
parish  until  thirty  days  after  it  had  been  published 
there.  This  allowed  a  large  discretion  to  each 
Bishop  with  regard  to  the  time  of  its  publication  in 
his  diocese,  and  in  fact,  it  is  not  long  since  it  has 
been  introduced  into  England.1  But  it  does  not 
and  never  did  apply  to  any  marriage  in  those 
countries  where  one  of  the  parties  is  not  a  Catholic. 
Neither  in  such  marriages  which  are  called  mixed, 
nor  in  those  contracted  between  parties  neither  of 
which  belong  to  the  Catholic  Church,  is  the  presence 
of  any  priest  required  for  the  validity  of  either  the 
contract  or  the  sacrament.  It  is  not  even  necessary 
that  the  contracting  parties  should  know  that 
marriage  is  a  sacrament.  The  sacrament  exists 
wherever  Christians  marry  as  Christ  intended.  If 
they  be  properly  disposed  they  will  receive  grace 
to  live  happily  together,  and  to  bring  up  their 
children  in  the  fear  and  love  of  God. 

"  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  marriage  was  therefore 
perfectly  valid  both  as  a  contract  and  as  a 
sacrament  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole  Catholic 

1  "The  writer  is  incorrect  in  saying  the  Decree  of  the  Council  has  been 
introduced  into  England.  At  this  moment  two  Catholics  may  contract 
a  valid  marriage  before  the  registrar  without  the  presence  of  a  priest, 
but  such  Catholics  sin  grievously  by  so  doing. 

"  In  Ireland  or  France  two  Catholics  cannot  contract  marriage  validly 
except  in  the  presence  of  the  parish  priest  or  his  deputy.  A  Catholic 
and  a  Protestant  with  a  domicile  in  Ireland  may  contract  marriage 
validly  without  the  presence  of  a  priest.  Could  they  in  France  ?  The 
answer  is  disputed."  (Note  by  Father  Gavin.) 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE      127 

Church,1  and  to  imagine  that  she  alone  of  all  those 
who  professed  the  same  faith  should  look  upon  it 
as  invalid  is  monstrously  absurd.  Neither  the  Pope 
nor  the  whole  Church  could  have  annulled  it,  nor 
allowed  her  to  marry  another." 2 

To  Roman  Catholics  the  question  was  lifted 
beyond  the  pale  of  controversy  in  1800.  Before 
that  time  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  left  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  and  married  the  Princess  Caroline  of 
Brunswick.  In  turn  he  had  separated  from  her, 
and  desired  to  return  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert ;  but 
before  she  would  receive  him  again  she  appealed 
to  Rome.  The  case  was  laid  before  the  highest 
authorities  of  her  Church  by  her  director,  the  Rev. 
William  Nassau,  one  of  the  priests  of  the  church  in 
Warwick  Street,  who  made  a  journey  to  Rome  for 
that  purpose.  After  exhaustive  inquiry  into  the 
whole  circumstances  of  the  marriage,  the  decision 
was  given  in  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  favour.  According 
to  the  law  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  though 
not  according  to  the  law  of  England,  she  was  de- 
clared to  be  the  wife  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  In 
the  judgment  of  the  Court  of  Rome  she  occupied 
much  the  same  position  towards  the  Prince  of 
Wales  as  Catherine  of  Arragon  occupied  towards 
Henry  VIII.,  after  he  had  put  her  away  and  married 
Anne  Boleyn  —  a  judgment  which  would  be  re- 
pudiated by  the  great  bulk  of  the  English  people, 

1  "  This  is  correct.    The  writer's  inaccuracies  do  not  affect  the  main 
issue.     Mrs.    Fitzherbert's   marriage  to  George    IV.,  being  without 
canonical  impediment,  was  undoubtedly  a  valid  marriage  according 
to  Catholic  teaching."    (Note  by  Father  Gavin.) 

2  This  extract  from  the  article  in  the  Dublin  Review  is  quoted  in 
Langdale's  "  Memoir  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.'' 


128  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

who  strongly  object  to  "  any  foreign  jurisdicture," 
and  stoutly  maintain  that  "  The  Bishop  of  Rome 
hath  no  jurisdiction  in  this  realm  of  England."' 
This  decision  was  obtained  for  the  personal  satis- 
faction of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  was  kept  private. 
But  to  Roman  Catholics  it  was  all  sufficient.  "  Roma 
locuta  est,  causa  finita  est" 

There  remains  the  Anglican  view  of  the  validity  of 
the  marriage,  i.e.,  of  the  ecclesiastical  law  of  England 
as  against  the  civil.  This  is  more  conflicting ;  but 
since  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  a  member  of  the 
Church  of  England,  it  has  to  be  considered.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Erastian  view,  the  Church  of  England 
is  subject  to  the  State,  and  not  only  as  regards 
her  temporalities,  but  in  questions  of  doctrine  and 
discipline,  faith  and  morals,  she  is  dominated  by  the 
civil  power.  Parliament  therefore  has  the  right  not 
only  to  arrange  the  marriage  laws  (a  power,  be  it 
noted,  which  is  claimed  by  the  legislative  bodies  in 
other  civilised  states),  but  to  force  its  decision  upon 
the  Church,  which  is  bound  to  accept  whatever 
regulation  of  the  marriage  law  Parliament  may 
enact.  In  the  case  of  the  Royal  Marriage  Act, 
it  was  an  Act  brought  forward  at  the  instance  of 
the  Sovereign,  who  is  the  temporal  head  of  the 
Church,  and  it  passed  through  Parliament  with 
the  consent  of  the  Lords  Spiritual,  none  of  whom 

1  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  Article  XXXVII.  :  Of  the  Civil 
Magistrates.  Even  more  strongly  was  this  expressed  in  the  oath  of 
allegiance  in  the  "  Bill  of  Rights."  "And  I  do  declare  that  no  foreign 
prince,  person,  prelate,  state  or  potentate  hath,  or  ought  to  have,  any 
jurisdiction,  power,  superiority,  pre-eminence,  or  authority,  eccle- 
siastical or  civil,  within  this  realm.  So  help  me  God  ! " 


VALIDITY   OF   THE   MARRIAGE      129 

protested  against  it.  It  is  contended,  therefore, 
that  so  long  as  the  Church  is  united  to  the  State, 
the  Royal  Marriage  Act  is  binding  on  the  Church 
of  England. 

But  it  is  submitted,  on  the  other  hand,  by  many 
who  are  amongst  the  most  learned  and  loyal 
members  of  the  Church  of  England,  that  neither 
the  Sovereign  nor  Parliament  nas  any  right  to 
force  upon  the  Church  any  law  affecting  the  doc- 
trine and  discipline  of  the  Church  without  her 
consent.  They  argue  that,  according  to  the  Refor- 
mation settlement,  no  change  can  be  made  in  the 
Church's  formularies  without  the  consent  of  the 
Sovereign,  the  two  houses  of  Convocation  repre- 
senting the  Bishops  and  the  clergy,  and  Parliament 
representing  the  laity.1  The  marriage  law  of  the 
Church  of  England  remained  virtually  the  same 
before  and  after  the  Reformation,  and  was  settled 
on  the  general  lines  which  prevail  in  the  Western 
Church.2 

After  the  accession  of  George  I.  the  Erastian 
view  gained  the  upper  hand,  and  in  1717  Con- 

1  In  those  days  the  operation  of  the  Test  Acts  made  it  impossible 
for  any  but  members  of  the  Church  of  England  to  have  seats  in 
Parliament.     Parliament,  therefore,  may  be  said  to  have  represented 
the  laity  of  the  Church  of  England ;  but  in  these  days,  when  it  is  open 
to  Jews,  and  others  not  professing  Christianity,  such  a  contention  is 
absurd.     On  the  other  hand,  the  power  of  Convocation  to  enact  fresh 
canons  without  the  King's  licence  was  expressly  taken  away  by  a 
statute  of  Henry  VIII. 

2  One  of  the  leading  laymen  in  the  Church  of  England,  a  recog- 
nised authority  on   matters  ecclesiastical,  writes  to  me  concerning 
this  marriage  :   "  I  feel  sure  that  its  "validity  cannot  be  disputed  ; 
the  Roman  view  and  the  Anglican  would  be  identical   on  such  a 
subject." 

VOL.    I.  I 


130  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

vocation  was  prorogued  by  the  Government  sine 
diey  for  protesting  against  the  appointment  of 
a  free  -  thinking  Bishop.1  The  clergy  had  no 
longer  any  means  of  making  their  voices  heard, 
except  through  the  Bishops  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  who  were  appointed  by  the  State.  When 
the  Royal  Marriage  Act  was  passed  in  1772 
Convocation  was  not  consulted,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  it  did  not  exist.  Therefore,  argued 
certain  canonists,  the  Act  was  a  breach  of  the 
Reformation  settlement  between  Church  and  State, 
and  an  unwarrantable  intrusion  of  the  temporal 
power  into  the  sphere  of  the  spiritual.  Parliament 
was  of  course  able  to  make  any  laws  it  pleased,  but 
it  could  not  force  those  laws  upon  the  Church  of 
England  without  her  consent,  and  in  this  instance 
no  opportunity  was  given  to  the  clergy  either  to 
approve  or  disapprove  of  this  tampering  with  the 
marriage  laws.  The  Royal  Marriage  Act  was 
therefore  not  binding  on  the  conscience  of  the 
clergy.2  The  canon  law  remained  unaltered,  and 
there  was  no  canonical  impediment,  therefore  the 
clergyman  who  performed  the  marriage  between 
the  Prince  of  Wales  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was 
within  his  right,  and  the  marriage  was  valid  accord- 
ing to  the  authorised  doctrine  of  the  Church  of 

1  Hoadly,  who  had  been  appointed  Bishop  of  Bangor — the  cele- 
brated Bangorian  controversy.     Convocation  was  not  permitted  to  sit 
again  until  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria — in  1852. 

2  Another  conflict  between  the  civil  law  and  ecclesiastical  may  be 
found  in  the  re-marriage  of  divorced  persons.     No  clergyman  can  be 
forced  to  marry  them,  for  the  canon  law  of  the  Church  forbids  such 
marriages,  treating  them  as  invalid.     Yet  they  are  perfectly  legal. 


VALIDITY   OF  THE   MARRIAGE      131 

England.  This  argument  in  any  case  does  not 
affect  the  legality  or  illegality  of  the  marriage,  but  it 
serves  to  add  to  the  difficulty  of  a  question  already 
sufficiently  complicated. 

The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  seems  to  be 
this.  According  to  the  civil  law  of  England  the 
ceremony  was  illegal  and  the  marriage  was  null 
and  void.  According  to  the  canon  law  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  also  of  the  Church 
of  England,  it  was  valid. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PERILOUS   HONOURS 

(1785—1786) 

THERE  is  a  tradition  that  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  passed  their  honeymoon  at  her 
villa  at  Richmond.  The  legend  also  says  that 
immediately  after  the  ceremony  they  set  out  from 
Park  Street  for  Richmond,  and  the  road  (for  it  was 
winter)  was  so  blocked  with  snow  as  to  be  almost 
impassable.  The  horses  broke  down,  and  they  had 
to  sup  at  an  inn  at  Hammersmith  before  proceed- 
ing to  their  destination.  The  honeymoon  was  but 
a  brief  one,  for  they  were  back  in  London  by 
Christmas. 

The  air  was  thick  with  rumour.  "The  lie  of  the 
day,"  writes  Robert  Hobart  to  the  Duke  of  Rut- 
land, on  December  24,  1785  (after  the  marriage), 
"  is  that  the  Prince  of  Wales  is  to  marry  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert, but,  I  believe,  totally  without  foundation."1 
Again  he  writes  on  December  27,  "The  town  still 
talk  of  the  Prince  of  Wales's  marriage.  He  has 
taken  a  box  for  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  at  the  Opera,  and 
constantly  passes  the  greater  part  of  the  night  with 
her.  I  do  not  hear  of  Prince  Carnaby's  being  yet 

1  Rutland   Papers,   Hist.   MSS.   Comm.   I4th   Report,  Appendix, 

Part  I. 

132 


PERILOUS   HONOURS  133 

arrived  in  town.1  Watt  Smith2  appears  already 
much  elated  with  the  honour  that  is  intended,  or 
rather  the  dishonour  which  has  already  attended,  his 
family.  His  Royal  Highness's  new  establishment 
is  not  yet  named,  but  no  doubt  the  Marchioness  of 
Buckingham 3  will  be  first  lady  of  the  bedchamber, 
and  her  aunt,  Peg  Nugent,  necessary  woman.  If 
pride,  arrogance,  and  self-sufficiency  be  qualities 
for  a  Popish  Minister,  the  noble  Marquis  himself, 
by  embracing  that  religion  which  he  appeared  to 
encourage  in  his  wife,  may  be  at  the  head  of  the 
Papistical  Court." 4  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot  writes  to  his 
wife  (December  1785):  "She  (Lady  Palmerston) 
says  the  report  is  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  is,  or  is  to 
be,  at  Carlton  House ;  that  she  was  married  by  a 
Roman  Catholic  priest,  is  to  have  ^6000  a  year, 
and  is  to  be  created  a  duchess." 5 

Of  course  that  arch-gossip,  Horace  Walpole,  soon 
made  the  marriage  the  subject  of  his  letters.  He 
writes  to  Sir  Horace  Mann,  February  13,  1786: 
"  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  your  account  of  the 
House  of  Albany  (the  royal  house  of  Stuart),  but 
that  extinguishing  Family  can  make  no  sensation 
here,  when  we  have  other  guess-work  to  talk  of  in 
a  higher  and  more  flourishing  race ;  and  yet  were 
rumour — aye,  and  much  more  than  rumour,  every 
voice  in  England — to  be  credited,  the  matter  [Mrs. 

1  Sir  Carnaby  Haggerston,  Bart.,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  brother-in-law, 
who  lived  at  Grantham,  not  far  from  Belvoir. 

2  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  eldest  brother. 

3  The  Marquess  of  Buckingham  was  (1782-83)  Lord  Lieutenant  of 
Ireland ;  the  Marchioness  was  suspected  of  leanings  to  Popery. 

4  Rutland  Papers,  op.  cit. 

5  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  first  Earl  of  Minto,"  1874. 
Lady  Palmerston  was  mother  of  the  great  Lord  Palmerston. 


134  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Fitzherbert's  marriage],  somehow  or  other,  reaches 
even  from  London  to  Rome.  I  know  nothing  but 
the  buzz  of  the  day,  nor  can  say  more  upon  it.  If 
I  send  you  a  riddle,  fame  or  echo  from  so  many 
voices  will  soon  reach  you,  and  explain  the  enigma  ; 
though  I  hope  it  is  essentially  void  of  truth,  and 
that  appearances  arise  from  a  much  more  common 
cause." 1 

It  was  not  long  before  the  gossip  of  the  town 
reached  the  ears  of  the  King  and  Queen.  The 
relations  between  the  Prince  and  his  parents  were 
still  strained.  The  King  habitually  spoke  of  him 
with  bitterness ;  but  Queen  Charlotte,  though  she 
made  common  cause  with  the  King,  and  seemed 
to  approve  of  his  harsh  treatment  of  the  Prince, 
was  in  her  peculiar  way  devoted  to  her  first-born 
son,  for  whom  she  cared  more  than  for  all  her 
other  children.  She  was  keenly  interested  in  his 
every  movement,  and  there  were  plenty  of  people 
in  high  places  who  were  willing  to  gratify  her 
maternal  curiosity.  The  King  and  Queen  had  often 
discussed  the  Prince's  infatuation  for  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert.  The  Queen  had  found  out  all  about  her 
character  and  antecedents.  This  was  not  difficult, 
for  she  came  of  a  well-known  family,  and  Queen 
Charlotte  had  received  her  at  court  after  her 
marriage  to  Mr.  Fitzherbert.  Presentation  at 
court  in  those  days  was  more  limited  than  now, 
and  the  Roman  Catholics  who  attended  were  com- 
paratively few.  The  King  and  Queen  were  also 
well  acquainted  with  the  Weld  family,  more  especi- 
ally with  Mr.  Thomas  Weld  (Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 

1  "  Horace  Walpole's  Letters,"  ed.  1859,  vol.  ix. 


PERILOUS   HONOURS  135 

brother-in-law),  and  visited  him  at  Lulworth.  The 
Queen  knew  her  eldest  son's  character  too  well  to 
take  him  seriously,  and  his  extravagance  of  passion 
for  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  at  first  afforded  her  cynical 
amusement,  while  the  King  made  it  a  subject  for 
taunting  the  Prince.  They  never  imagined  that 
the  folly  would  lead  to  marriage ;  besides,  they 
knew  such  a  marriage  would  be  illegal,  and  there- 
fore, from  their  point  of  view,  impossible.  The 
King  deplored  his  son's  infatuation,  but  the  news 
of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  return  to  England  could  not 
have  made  him  very  anxious.  Both  he  and  the 
Queen  probably  thought  (if  they  thought  about  the 
matter  at  all)  that  the  lady  had  surrendered  at  dis- 
cretion. But  presently  the  rumour  came  that  the 
Prince  of  Wales  had  actually  gone  through  a  cere- 
mony of  marriage  with  this  Roman  Catholic  lady. 
They  knew  not  what  to  think,  for  the  rumour  was 
so  persistent,  so  circumstantial,  that  it  could  not  be 
ignored.  If  true,  they  regarded  it  as  the  crowning 
act  of  folly  and  filial  disobedience. 

The  court  was  at  Windsor  for  Christmas ;  the 
King  had  not  seen  his  son  for  months,  and 
would  not  see  him ;  but  Queen  Charlotte  is  said 
to  have  sent  for  the  Prince  of  Wales  as  soon 
as  the  news  reached  her  ears,  and  demanded  to 
know  the  truth.  It  is  very  unlikely  that  the  Prince 
told  her  the  truth.  The  interview  which  took 
place  between  mother  and  son  (if  it  took  place 
at  all)  must  have  been  in  private,  and  the  cate- 
gorical account  of  the  conversation  between  them 
given  by  one  writer  must  be  dismissed  as  imagi- 
nary. The  Prince,  we  are  told,  not  only  avowed 


136  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

his  marriage  (which,  of  course,  the  Queen  would 
not  admit  to  be  a  marriage  at  all),  but  swore  that 
no  power  on  earth  should  separate  him  from  his 
wife.  He  then  addressed  the  Queen  as  follows  :  "  I 
beg  further  that  my  wife  be  received  at  court,  and 
proportionately  as  your  Majesty  receives  her,  and 
pays  her  attention  from  this  time,  so  shall  I  render 
my  attentions  to  your  Majesty.  The  lady  I  have 
married  is  worthy  of  all  homage,  and  my  very 
confidential  friends,  with  some  of  my  wife's  rela- 
tions, only  witnessed  our  marriage.  Have  you 
not  always  taught  me  to  consider  myself  heir  to 
the  first  sovereignty  in  the  world  ?  Where, 
then,  will  exist  any  risk  of  obtaining  the  ready 
concurrence  from  the  House  in  my  marriage?"1 
&c.  &c.  The  Prince  said  a  great  many  foolish 
things  in  his  life,  but  it  is  certain  that  he  never 
said  to  his  mother  anything  so  foolish  as  this. 
He  probably  equivocated  with  her,  as  it  was  his 
habit  with  every  one  when  asked  a  direct  ques- 
tion. It  is  still  more  unlikely  that  the  Queen 
was  softened  by  such  reasoning ;  she  would  have 
become  harder  than  ever.  The  further  statement 
of  Dr.  Doran  (who  quotes  the  conversation),  "  that 
it  is  certain  that  her  Majesty  received  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert  at  a  drawing-room  in  the  following  year  with 
very  marked  courtesy,"  is  incorrect.  The  printed 
lists  of  Queen  Charlotte's  drawing-rooms  contain  no 
mention  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  name  after  she  went 
through  the  ceremony  of  marriage  with  the  Prince 
of  Wales.  On  the  contrary,  the  fact  that  she  did 
not  go  to  court  occasioned  comment,  both  in  society 
1  Doran's  "  Lives  of  the  Queens  of  England." 


PERILOUS   HONOURS  137 

and  in  the  press.  The  following  paragraph  was 
given  special  prominence  in  the  Morning  Post  a 
year  or  two  later :  "  A  QUESTION.  What  is  the 
reason  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  who  is  a  lady  of 
fortune  and  fashion,  never  appears  at  court?  She 
is  visited  by  some  ladies  of  high  rank,  has  been  in 
public  with  them,  and  yet  never  goes  to  the  Draw- 
ing-rooms at  St.  James's.  This  question  is  sent 
for  publication  by  a  Person  who  pays  no  regard  to 
idle  reports,  but  who  wishes  to  have  the  mystery 
cleared  up." l 

But  though  this  conversation  may  be  dismissed 
as  spurious,  and  the  Prince's  avowal  of  his  marriage 
also,  there  is  little  doubt  that  an  interview  took 
place  between  the  Queen  and  the  Prince,  on  the 
subject  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert ;  and  enough  passed  to 
convince  the  Queen  that  this  was  no  common  amour. 
The  Queen  was  greatly  annoyed  that  her  son 
should  entangle  himself,  and  in  the  first  flush  of 
her  displeasure  she  could  not  help  regarding  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  with  strong  disfavour.  But  with  char- 
acteristic common-sense,  the  Queen,  seeing  that 
nothing  could  be  done,  resolved  to  make  the  best 
of  the  situation.  She  knew  that,  whatever  had 
passed,  her  son  was  free,  in  law,  to  marry,  and  she 
trusted  to  time  to  wear  out  his  infatuation,  and  to 
his  well-known  character  to  make  him  take  advan- 
tage of  his  freedom  when  that  time  came. 

The  fact  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  no  longer  went  to 
court  made  little  difference  to  her  social  position. 
The  Duchess  of  Cumberland  was  not  received  at 

1  Morning  Post,  Oct.  10,  1788.     Needless  to  say,  this  impertinent 
question  was  never  answered. 


138  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

court,  but  she  was  openly  acknowledged  every- 
where as  the  Duchess.  Neither  was  the  Duchess 
of  Gloucester  received  at  court  until  many  years 
after  her  marriage  was  declared.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
non-attendance  at  court  meant  no  reflection  on 
her  personal  character,  but  it  meant  that,  like  the 
Duchess  of  Cumberland  (and,  for  a  time,  the  Duchess 
of  Gloucester),  she  was  under  the  ban  of  the  royal 
displeasure.  It  was  the  necessary  consequence  of 
the  equivocal  position  in  which  she  had  placed  her- 
self. The  dubious  attitude  adopted  towards  her  by 
Queen  Charlotte  was  a  sample  of  what  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert  found  she  had  to  face  from  the  world  in 
general.  She,  who  had  never  before  suffered  the 
faintest  whisper  against  her  fair  name,  now  found 
herself  the  subject  of  much  scandalous  gossip  among 
her  acquaintances,  and  the  butt  of  the  open  abuse 
of  the  vulgar.  It  was  part  of  the  price  she  had  to 
pay  for  following  the  dictates  of  her  heart ;  and  she 
paid  it,  if  not  without  suffering,  at  least  without  a 
murmur.  No  reproaches  escaped  her  lips,  no  hint 
of  retaliation,  nor  any  attempt  at  explanation ;  she 
shrank  from  the  publicity  which  was  thrust  upon 
her,  but  she  did  not  show  herself  afraid.  So  far 
from  courting  public  notice,  she  altered  her  manner 
of  life  as  little  as  possible.  She  still  kept  the  name 
of  Fitzherbert,  she  still  used  the  Fitzherbert  liveries, 
and  she  drove  about  in  a  very  quiet  equipage.  She 
still  maintained  her  separate  establishment ;  she  lived 
in  her  own  house  at  Richmond,  and  the  Prince  at 
Carlton  House.  But  when  she  came  to  London, 
residence  in  Park  Street  being  no  longer  desirable, 
she  rented  for  a  time  Lord  Uxbridge's  furnished 


PERILOUS   HONOURS  139 

mansion  in  St.  James's  Square.  This  she  did  at  the 
Prince's  request,  for  he  wished  her  to  be  nearer 
to  him.  He  also  took  for  her  a  box  at  the  Opera, 
and  in  this  box  he  was  seen  with  her  almost  every 
night. 

To  do  the  Prince  justice,  short  of  openly  acknow- 
ledging the  marriage,  he  did  everything  in  his 
power  to  secure  for  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  respect  and 
consideration.  He  caused  it  to  be  announced 
among  all  his  friends  and  intimates  that  honour 
paid  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  honour  paid  to 
him.  He  made  it  a  condition  that  at  all  private 
parties  and  entertainments  which  he  honoured 
with  his  presence  she  was  to  be  invited  also. 
If  she  were  not  asked  he  would  not  go.  He 
further  insisted  that  in  her  case  the  ordinary 
rules  of  precedence  were  to  be  waived,  and  at  all 
entertainments  she  was  always  to  be  seated  at  the 
same  table  as  himself;  and  in  public,  when  the 
eyes  of  all  were  fixed  upon  him,  he  always  paid 
her  the  most  courtly  deference,  which  the  "first 
gentleman  in  Europe"  knew  well  how  to  assume. 
His  manner  towards  her  was  exactly  that  with 
which  a  husband  would  treat  an  honoured  wife, 
and  manners  at  that  period  were  much  more  formal 
than  they  are  now.  "  The  Prince,"  said  one  who 
knew  him  in  those  early  days,  "never  forgot  to  go 
through  the  form  of  saying  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert, 
with  the  most  respectful  bow,  '  Madam,  may  I  be 
allowed  the  honour  of  seeing  you  home  in  my 
carriage  ? ' '  The  same  writer  bears  testimony  to 
the  "  extreme  fascination  of  his  manners." l 
1  Lady  C.  Bury's  "  Diary  illustrative  of  the  Times  of  George  IV." 


1 40  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

But  if  the   Prince   had   great   influence   in   the 
world  of  fashion,  he  was  not  all  powerful.     Among 
his  friends  he  reigned  supreme,  and  they  included 
many  of  the  great  Whig  families.     But  the  Tory 
houses  were  by  no  means    prepared    to  follow  his 
lead  blindly  in  social  matters.     He  could  not  force 
people  to  receive  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  since  he  would 
not  acknowledge  her  to  be  his  wife.     Her  position 
at  first  was  one  of  considerable  difficulty  and  em- 
barrassment.    Even  her  relatives  were  for  a  time 
divided    against   her.       Her   brothers,    it   is    true, 
championed  her  cause,  but  their  indiscreet  advocacy 
did  more  harm  than  good.     The  Erringtons  stood 
by  her,  and  so  did  the  Haggerstons,  but  the  Welds 
and   Fitzherberts  regarded  her  with  doubtful   ap- 
proval, and  the  Seftons  avoided  her.    Lady  Sefton's 
defection  was,  perhaps,  the  most  serious  blow  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  had  to  endure  from  the  social  point  of 
view,  for  she  had  made  her  debfit   in  fashionable 
London  under  her  wing ;  but  in  time  Lady  Sefton 
came  round.      At  first  the  great  majority  of  her 
friends  knew  not  what  to  think.     It  seemed  a  thing 
impossible  that  a  woman  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  char- 
acter and  position    should    dishonour    herself  and 
disgrace  her  family  by  becoming   the  mistress   of 
the  Prince  of  Wales.     To  those  who  knew  her  well 
the  thing  was  unthinkable,  and  yet,  how  could  she 
become  his  wife  in  the  face  of  recent  legislation  ? 
If  some  form,  or  ceremony,  of  marriage  had  taken 
place,  why  was  it  not  definitely  stated  ?     The  Prince 
could  not  be  questioned  directly  on  such  a  matter, 
and   his   friends  met   all   questions   on   his    behalf 
with  evasions  or  denials.    Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  no 


PERILOUS   HONOURS  141 

answer  but  silence.  She  had  done  nothing  against 
her  conscience,  she  maintained,  and  the  rest  must 
take  its  chance.  But  it  was  noticed  that  she  still 
openly  practised  her  religion.  She  was  visited  by 
her  spiritual  director,  and  continued  to  attend 
Mass  at  the  Warwick  Street  Chapel.  This,  her 
Roman  Catholic  friends  argued,  would  have  been 
impossible  unless  her  confessor  were  satisfied  that 
she  was  not  living  in  sin ;  and  though  many  of 
them  could  not  approve  of  the  step  she  had  taken, 
which  they  regarded  as  dangerous  and  unwise, 
they  were  satisfied  that  she  was  really  married  to 
the  Prince  according  to  the  requirements  of  their 
Church.  Having  satisfied  themselves  on  this  point, 
they  silently  supported  her  by  their  social  influence, 
which  in  many  cases  was  considerable.  The  view 
generally  taken  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  conduct  by 
those  of  her  religion  is  well  put  by  Lady  Jerning- 
ham,  who,  writing  to  her  daughter,  Lady  Beding- 
field,  March  6,  1786,  says:  "Mrs.  Fitzherbert  is 
generally  believed  to  have  been  married  to  the 
Prince,  but  it  is  a  very  hazardous  proceeding, 
as  there  are  'two  Acts  of  Parliament  against  the 
validity  of  such  an  alliance,  concerning  her  being  a 
subject  and  her  being  a  Catholick.  God  knows 
how  it  will  turn  out — it  may  be  to  the  glory  of 
our  Belief,  or  it  may  be  to  the  great  dismay  and 
destruction  of  it."1 

The  support  given  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  at  this 
juncture  did  not  come  only  from  the  old  Roman 
Catholic  families.  The  Duchess  of  Devonshire 
frequently  appeared  in  public  with  her,  and  she  was 

1  "  The  Jerningham  Letters,"  op.  tit. 


i42  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

a  constant  and  honoured  guest  at  Devonshire 
House.  The  Duchess  of  Devonshire's  example 
was  followed  by  nearly  all  the  great  Whig  ladies, 
though  here  and  there  one,  like  the  Duchess  of 
Portland,  at  first  held  aloof.  They  called  upon  her, 
invited  her  to  their  parties,  and  treated  her  with 
every  courtesy. 

Another  good  friend  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  was 
Lady  Clermont,  who  held  a  great  position  in  the 
society  of  that  day.  Lady  Clermont  was  a  woman 
of  advanced  age,  who  had  maintained  a  stainless 
reputation  throughout  her  long  life.  She  was  a 
great  friend  of  Marie  Antoinette,  as  well  as  of 
Queen  Charlotte,  and  was  a  welcome  guest  both 
at  Versailles  and  St.  James's.  Lord  and  Lady  Cler- 
mont were  aristocrats  of  the  old  school,  courtly  and 
dignified  in  their  manners,  and  with  a  high  sense 
of  noblesse  oblige.  At  their  house  in  Berkeley 
Square  they  entertained  with  stately  hospitality. 
They  had  the  best  chef 'and  wines  in  London,  and 
invitations  to  the  Clermonts'  dinners  and  assemblies 
were  eagerly  sought.  The  Prince  of  Wales  often 
dined  with  them,  and  so  did  Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 
Lady  Clermont  held  her  in  high  esteem,  and  always 
supported  her.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  goodness,  her 
dignity,  and  her  reserve  all  appealed  to  this  grande 
dame  of  a  generation  fast  passing  away.  She  was 
entirely  on  her  side,  and  bold  were  they  who  pre- 
sumed to  question  where  Lady  Clermont  approved. 

On  the  Tory  side  was  the  Marchioness  of  Salis- 
bury, who  prided  herself  on  taking  a  line  of  her  own. 
Lady  Salisbury  was  a  great  lady  of  a  very  different 
type  to  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire.  It  was  well 


MRS.    FITZHERBERT 

{From  the  Painting  by  JOHN  RUSSELL,  R.A. ,  at  Swynnerton,  by  permission  of 
BASIL  FIT/.HERBEKT,  Esq.) 


PERILOUS   HONOURS  143 

said  "  that  while  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire  never 
seemed  to  be  conscious  of  her  rank,  Lady  Salisbury 
ceased  not  for  an  instant  to  remember  hers,  or  to 
compel  others  to  remember  it  also."  She  was  a 
woman  of  great  ability,  a  clever  conversationalist, 
but  dictatorial  and  obstinate.  She  had  known  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  before  her  connection  with  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  and  as  she  was  convinced  that  she  would  do 
nothing  wrong,  she  continued  to  welcome  her  to  her 
house.  Lady  Salisbury  had  parties  on  Sunday 
evening,  and  she  would  not  give  them  up,  though 
appealed  to  by  the  Bishop  of  London.  All  her 
habits  were  conservative,  and  she  retained  her  sedan 
chair,  and  running  footmen  with  blue-and-silver 
liveries,  long  after  these  things  had  been  generally 
given  up.1 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  tacitly  accorded  a  position 
sui  generis,  and  supported  by  her  friends  she  soon 
succeeded  in  living  down  the  greater  part  of  the 
opposition  against  her.  That  she  did  so  was  also  due 
to  her  tact,  her  amiability,  her  unassuming  manners, 
her  kindness  of  heart,  and  the  straightforwardness  of 
her  character.  The  young  Prince  at  this  time  loved 
her  with  a  love  that  was  almost  adoration.  His 
"white  rose"  he  called  her,  partly  because  of  her 
Jacobite  ancestry,  partly  because  of  her  pale  fair 
loveliness,  but  chiefly  because  of  her  innate  purity ; 
and  white  roses  were  always  her  favourite  flower. 
In  the  world  it  was  noted  in  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
favour  that  the  Prince  had  greatly  improved. 
The  change  for  the  better  in  his  habits  and  conver- 

1  Lady  Salisbury  was  the  daughter  of  the  first  Marquis  of  Down- 
shire,  and  married  in  1773  James,  first  Marquis  of  Salisbury. 


144  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

p 

sation  was  marked,  and  could  only  be  ascribed 
to  the  influence  of  a  good  woman.  The  young 
Prince,  in  spite  of  his  wildness  and  folly,  had  in- 
grained in  him  a  strong  love  of  domesticity,  which 
he  had  inherited  perhaps  from  his  German  ancestors. 
In  his  youth  his  home  had  been  unhappy,  and  his 
parents  unsympathetic ;  then  he  was  thrown  upon 
the  town  without  any  home-life  at  all.  But  this 
beautiful  and  gracious  woman,  with  her  purity  of  pur- 
pose and  unobtrusive  goodness,  made  a  home  for  him 
such  as  he  had  never  known  before.  Though  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  public  life  belonged  to  the  nation, 
his  home  life  was  his  own.  He  had  the  right  to 
ask  that  it  should  be  kept  sacred,  and  none  should 
grudge  him  the  quiet  hours  he  spent  under  the 
roof  of  the  woman  he  loved,  and  who  believed 
herself  bound  to  him  by  the  holiest  ties.  Here, 
at  least,  they  might  have  found  sanctuary.  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  usurped  no  one's  place,  interfered  with 
no  one,  and  put  forward  no  pretensions.  The 
Prince  made  no  claim  on  her  behalf,  either  from 
Parliament  or  from  the  nation.  All  that  they  asked 
at  this  time  was  to  be  left  alone,  to  enjoy  their 
happiness  in  their  own  way.  But  the  fierce  curiosity 
of  the  world,  which  is  always  meddling  in  the  private 
affairs  of  other  people,  refused  to  leave  them  in 
peace.  Were  they  married  or  were  they  not  ?  re- 
mained the  absorbing  question.  The  denials  of  the 
Prince's  friends  counted  for  little,  for  people  re- 
membered how  emphatically  the  rumour  of  the  mar- 
riage between  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  and  Lady 
Waldegrave  had  been  denied,  and  yet  it  proved  to 
be  true  after  all.  The  accounts  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 


PERILOUS   HONOURS  145 

marriage  were  categorical,  and  the  fact  that  she  was 
supported  and  visited  by  many  ladies  of  the  first 
fashion  lent  the  weight  of  corroborative  evidence. 
With  the  public  the  opinion  gained  ground  that  a 
marriage  had  taken  place.  The  Marquis  of  Lothian 
wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Rutland,  March  4,  1786,  "You 
ask  me  my  opinion  respecting  the  Prince's  marriage. 
I  think  it  has  all  the  appearance  of  being  true.  I 
believe,  when  he  has  been  spoken  to  about  it,  he 
has  been  violent,  but  I  cannot  find  out  that  he  has 
denied  it  peremptorily.  He  has  said  to  one  of  the 
most  intimate  in  his  family  [household],  when  asked 
on  the  subject,  that  he  might  answer,  if  asked  the 
question,  in  the  negative.  But  surely  a  report  of 
this  sort,  were  it  not  true,  should  be  publicly  con- 
tradicted, and  I  am  amazed  that  some  member  of 
Parliament  has  not  mentioned  it  in  the  House. 
Most  people  believe  it,  and  I  confess  I  am  one  of 
the  number.  Though  I  dined  alone  with  him,  and 
you  know  the  general  topic  of  his  conversation  about 
women,  he  never  mentioned  her  to  me  amongst 
others.  I  am  very  sorry  for  it,  for  it  does  him 
infinite  mischief,  particularly  amongst  the  trading 
and  lower  sort  of  people,  and  if  true  must  ruin  him 
in  every  light,  "j 

This  was  the  view  taken  by  many  of  the  Prince's 
friends,  especially  by  the  leaders  of  the  Whig  party, 
such  as  the  Duke  of  Portland  and  Fox,  and  their 
supporters  in  Parliament.  The  Prince  had  identi- 
fied himself  with  the  Whigs,  a  party  which  derived 
the  greater  part  of  its  support  from  the  middle  and 

1  Rutland  Papers,  op.  cit. 
VOL.    I.  K 


146  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

mercantile  classes,  most  of  whom  were  staunch 
Protestants  and  Nonconformists.  It  needed  only 
the  breath  of  such  a  rumour  to  fan  the  smouldering 
embers  of  Protestant  prejudice  into  a  No-Popery 
blaze.  It  was  impossible  that  the  Whig  leaders 
should  seem  to  connive  at  the  secret  marriage  of  the 
heir-apparent  with  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  yet  the 
Prince  was  so  intimate  with  them,  both  in  private 
and  public  life,  that  it  was  difficult  for  them  to  dis- 
associate themselves  altogether  from  his  follies. 
Their  political  adversaries  were  not  slow  to  see  this, 
and  began  to  make  capital  out  of  it. 

To  add  to  the  difficulty  of  the  situation,  the  Prince 
had  been  so  inconsiderate  as  to  contract  his  alliance 
with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  just  at  a  time  when  he  was 
engaged  in  an  acrimonious  correspondence  with  the 
King  on  the  subject  of  his  money  difficulties.  The 
King  had  hitherto  refused  to  pay  a  penny  of  the 
Prince's  debts,  and  this  fresh  act  of  filial  dis- 
obedience was  not  likely  to  loosen  his  purse-strings. 
The  Prince  wanted  money  badly.  In  addition  to 
the  debts  arising  from  his  habits  of  personal  extra- 
vagance, his  building  operations  at  Carlton  House, 
which  he  had  now  resumed,  were  costing  him  a  great 
deal  of  money,  and  his  secret  and  imprudent  mar- 
riage of  necessity  increased  his  embarrassments. 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  it  is  true,  was  free  from  the  re- 
proach of  avarice.  She  gave  herself  to  the  Prince 
without  any  settlements  or  money  stipulations  what- 
ever, and  she  trusted  wholly  to  his  honour.  She 
still  enjoyed  her  jointure  from  Mr.  Fitzherbert, 
which  had  hitherto  proved  sufficient  for  her  needs  ; 
and  she  would  have  been  quite  content  to  make 


PERILOUS   HONOURS  147 

that  enough,  and  not  to  take  a  penny  from  the  Prince. 
But  the  Prince  insisted  on  her  living  in  a  style  more 
commensurate  with  his  dignity.  She  had  to  set  up 
an  establishment  in  London,  and  to  entertain  him 
when  he  wished.  Entertaining  the  Prince  was  a 
very  expensive  matter  indeed.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
lived  as  quietly  and  unostentatiously  as  she  could, 
but  these  things  necessarily  increased  her  expen- 
diture. The  Prince  was  nothing  if  not  generous, 
and  he  would  have  given  her  half  his  income  at 
this  time  if  it  had  been  in  his  power.  He  had 
no  idea  of  the  value  of  money,  but  Mrs.  Fitzher- 
bert knew  too  well  his  embarrassments,  and  would 
not  accept  from  him  a  penny  more  than  the  sum 
necessary  to  meet  the  extra  expenses  now  entailed 
upon  her,  which  she  estimated  at  ^3000  a  year. 
That  sum  was  accordingly  given  to  her  by  the 
Prince.  This,  with  her  jointure  of  ^2000  a  year, 
she  considered  to  be  sufficient.  True,  the  Prince 
made  her  valuable  presents  of  jewellery  and  plate 
and  furniture  towards  her  new  establishment.  She 
tried  in  vain  to  check  his  liberality,  though  the 
money  he  spent  on  her  was  but  a  drop  in  the  ocean 
of  his  debts. 

As  the  King  would  do  nothing  to  help,  the  Prince 
at  last  prevailed  upon  Fox  and  Sheridan  to  bring 
the  matter  before  the  notice  of  Parliament.  The 
time  was  singularly  inopportune,  for  the  report  of 
his  marriage  to  a  Roman  Catholic  had  made  the 
Prince  very  unpopular.  Fox  was  one  of  those  who 
did  not  believe  that  a  ceremony  had  taken  place. 
Had  he  not  the  Prince's  letter,  of  December  1 1,  1 785, 
in  which  he  declared  that  "  there  never  was  any 


148  MRS.  FITZHERBERT   • 

ground  for  these  reports  which  have  of  late  been  so 
malevolently  circulated."  Sheridan,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  probably  one  of  the  few  who  knew  the 
truth.  But  he  was  devoted  to  the  Prince  and  also 
to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  was  quite  free  from  any 
excess  of  scruple.  Fox  and  Sheridan  raised  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Prince  of  Wales's  income  early  in  April 
1786,  during  a  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  on 
the  Civil  List.  The  facts  and  arguments  that  Fox 
brought  forward  seem  unanswerable.  "It  is  my 
conviction,"  he  said,  "that  the  dignity  of  the  Crown, 
and  even  the  national  advantage,  require  that  the 
Heir- Apparent  should  be  enabled  to  live,  not  merely 
in  ease,  but  in  splendour.  Under  George  I.,  when 
the  Civil  List  amounted  only  to  ,£700,000  a  year, 
the  Prince  of  Wales  (afterwards  George  II.)  had  an 
allowance  of  ,£100,000  a  year.  Yet  now,  when  in 
consequence  of  the  suppressions  made  in  the  King's 
household  the  Civil  List  may  be  fairly  estimated  at 
,£950,000  a  year,  only  .£50,000  are  given  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  If  His  Majesty,  as  is  evident  by 
the  demands  of  this  evening  (the  Civil  List  showed 
a  deficit  of  over  ,£200,000,  and  the  King  asked 
Parliament  to  make  this  good),  cannot  make  the 
former  sum  cover  his  expenses,  how  can  it  be  ex- 
pected that  His  Royal  Highness  is  to  live  upon  the 
last-mentioned  income  ?  " 

Fox's  arguments  produced  no  effect.  Members, 
even  on  the  Whig  benches,  listened  in  silence. 
Only  Alderman  Newnham,  member  of  Parliament 
for  the  City  of  London,  supported  Fox.  Pitt, 
speaking  in  the  name  of  the  Government,  in  his 
most  frigid  and  contemptuous  tones,  merely  said, 


PERILOUS   HONOURS  149 

"he  was  not  instructed  to  make  any  communication 
to  the  House  respecting  the  branches  of  the  Royal 
Family  :  that  he  should  avoid  the  presumption  of 
expressing  any  private  opinion  on  the  subject." 

Pitt's  answer  was  only  to  be  expected,  but  the 
chilling  silence  with  which  Fox's  words  were  greeted 
by  his  supporters  in  the  House  brought  home  to 
the  Whig  leaders,  and  also  to  the  popularity-loving 
Prince,  more  forcibly  than  anything  else  had  done, 
the  damage  which  the  rumour  of  his  secret  marriage 
was  doing  him  with  the  nation.  The  Prince,  there- 
fore, without  doors,  became  more  definite  in  his 
denials. 

Thomas  Orde  writes  to  the  Duke  of  Rutland,  May 
1 6,  1786  :  "  The  reports  about  the  Prince  of  Wales 
are  full  of  contradictions.  It  is  certain  that  many 
of  the  persons  said  to  be  present  were  not  there,  and 
the  clergyman  who  is  supposed  to  have  performed 
the  marriage  ceremony  (Parson  Johnes)  had,  as 
Lord  Southampton]  assures  me,  no  share  in  it.  The 
Prince  denies  the  thing,  but  has  at  the  same  time 
dropped  hints  of  her  belief  in  the  connection,  and 
has  wished,  therefore,  that  their  happiness  may  not 
be  interrupted  by  conjectures  and  rumours.  This, 
however,  gives  reason  to  imagine  that  some  cere- 
mony has  passed. 

"His  Royal  Highness  was  present  at  the  mar- 
riage of  Lady  H —  W —  with  Mr.  C — ,  and  after 
the  ceremony  the  Duchess  of  B.  unthinkingly  turned 
to  his  Royal  Highness  and  said,  '  She  supposed 
this  to  be  the  first  marriage  at  which  he  had  been 
present.'  The  Prince  assured  her  Grace  with  great 
energy  that  it  really  was  the  first.  The  Duchess 


150  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

hereupon  recollected  her  faux  pas,  and  was  con- 
founded.1 The  conduct  of  her  (Mrs.  Fitzherbert's) 
friends  is  very  different.  Some  of  them  see  her 
and  countenance  her,  others  totally  avoid  her."2 

It  may  be  supposed  that  the  topic  was  not  con- 
fined to  private  letters.  The  press,  then  far  less  re- 
strained than  now,  continued  to  teem  with  scarcely 
veiled  innuendoes  and  scandalous  rumours.  Some 
journals  maintained  that  "some  sort  of  marriage" 
had  taken  place,  others  stoutly  denied  it.  Nor  did 
the  caricaturists,  those  inevitable  satirists  on  the 
follies  of  the  day,  linger  behind.  Prints  and  cartoons 
on  the  subject  of  the  marriage  were  published  in 
great  number  and  variety ;  they  were  exposed  in 
the  shop  windows,  and  even  sold  in  the  streets,  to 
the  great  delight  of  the  vulgar.  All,  or  nearly 
all,  of  them  were  wide  of  the  facts,  and  many  were 
exceedingly  scurrilous.  It  was  an  age  of  coarse- 
ness, and  the  license  permitted  to  the  caricaturists 
was  great. 

We  may  dismiss  most  of  these  prints  to  the  limbo 
of  their  deserved  obscurity,  but  the  cartoons  of  the 
celebrated  caricaturist,  Gillray,3  on  the  Fitzherbert 

1  Wilkes  relates  this  anecdote  in  a  different  manner.     "  The  Bishop 
of  B.  told  me  that  a  most  respectable  lady  of  his  particular  friendship 
said  to  him,  '  The  Prince  came  in  here  yesterday,  overjoyed,  saying,  "  I 
never  did  better  in  anything.     I  behaved  incomparably  well.     I  could 
not  have  thought  it,  as  the  case  was  quite  new  to  me."    The  lady 
answered,  "  Your  Royal  Highness  always  behaves  well.     What  was 
the  case  that  was  quite  new  to  you  ?"     The  Prince  replied,  "  I  was  at  a 
marriage,  and  gave  the  bride  away."    The  lady  said,  "  Was  Your  Royal 
Highness  never  at  a  marriage  before?"     The  Prince  answered,  lay- 
ing his  right  hand  with  eagerness  upon  his  breast,  "  Never,  upon  my 
honour  !"'" — Wilkes'  "  Letters  to  His  Daughter,"  vol.  iii.  p.  299. 

2  Rutland  Papers,  op.  tit. 

1  James   Gillray  (1757-1815).      Gillray  was  then  at  the  zenith  of 
his  fame,  and  his  caricatures  on  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  marriage,  &c., 


PERILOUS   HONOURS  151 

marriage  call  for  notice,  if  only  because  of  their 
influence  on  contemporary  thought.  They  were 
printed  and  sold  by  thousands,  and  found  their 
way  (one  or  another)  into  nearly  every  important 
house  in  the  kingdom  ;  they  formed  a  never-ending 
source  of  conversation  and  amusement.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  Gillray's  caricatures  did  more 
than  anything  else  to  drag  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  into  un- 
willing publicity.  They  also  gave  credence  to  the 
persistent  rumour  that  a  secret  marriage  had  taken 
place  between  her  and  the  Prince  of  Wales.  Not- 
withstanding the  denials,  authorised  and  un- 
authorised, and  despite  all  appearances  to  the 
contrary,  this  remained  a  fixed  belief  in  the 
popular  mind  so  long  as  they  both  lived.  There 
is  no  need  to  describe  these  cartoons  in  detail. 
One  will  serve  as  a  specimen  of  the  rest.  It  is 
entitled,  "  Wife  or  no  Wife,  or  a  Trip  to  the 
Continent"  designed  by  Carlo  Khan  (Charles  Fox). 
Burke,  in  cassock  and  biretta,  as  a  Jesuit  priest, 
is  conducting  the  marriage  ceremony  at  the  altar. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  is  placing  a  wedding  ring  on 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  finger.  Her  headdress  is  com- 
posed of  three  ostrich  feathers,  and  the  ring  is  of 
unusual  size  (a  reference  to  the  popular  rumour  that 
the  ring  used  at  the  Park  Street  ceremony  was 
borrowed  for  the  emergency).  Fox  is  giving  away 
the  bride,  an  allusion  to  the  Tory  fiction  that  the 
Whig  leader  had  planned  the  marriage  in  order  to 
secure  a  greater  influence  over  the  Prince.  Sheri- 

were  mostly  issued  by  Miss  Humphrey,  29  St.  James's  Street,  where 
he  lived.  As  each  new  cartoon  appeared,  her  shop  window  was 
surrounded  by  a  curious  crowd. 


152  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

dan  and  George  [Hanger  (a  boon  companion  of  the 
Prince)  are  witnesses,  and  Lord  North,  dressed  as 
a  stage  coachman  who  has  acted  as  driver  to  the 
runaway  couple  (or  as  John  Bull),  is  fast  asleep  in  a 
corner. 

The  political  animus  of  this  print  was  obvious. 
It  was  designed  to  throw  the  onus  of  this  unpopular 
marriage  on  the  shoulders  of  the  Whig  leaders,  who, 
knowing  the  accusation  to  be  void  of  truth,  resented 
it  even  more  strongly  than  the  personages  most 
concerned.  The  Prince,  when  he  noticed  these 
attacks  at  all,  only  referred  to  them  in  terms  of 
jocularity,  and  this  also  applied  to  any  reference 
to  the  connection  between  himself  and  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert  in  the  public  press.  In  this  policy  of  laissez 
faire  he  was  advised  by  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  for  she 
always  (except  in  one  absolutely  necessary  instance) 
made  it  a  rule  to  ignore  the  attacks  upon  her,  either 
public  or  private,  thus  exercising  a  self-control  as 
wise  as  it  was  rare. 


CHAPTER  IX 

CARLTON  HOUSE  AND  BRIGHTON 
(1786) 

MRS.  FITZHERBERT  found  the  brilliant  society  of 
the  Prince's  circle  very  different  from  the  quiet 
Catholic  atmosphere  in  which  she  had  lived  the 
greater  part  of  her  life.  The  staid  Roman  Catholic 
families,  with  their  narrow  outlook  and  stately  old- 
world  manners,  bore  no  more  resemblance  to  the 
merry,  reckless  throng  at  Carl  ton  House  than  a  nun 
bears  to  a  woman  of  pleasure.  The  creed  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  and  his  friends  was  one  of  pure 
hedonism — "  Carpe  diem,  Juan,  carpe,  carpe"  was 
their  motto.  Carlton  House  was  a  court  of  plea- 
sure pure  and  simple. 

The  London  season  of  1786  was  one  of  unusual 
gaiety.  The  depression  which  had  followed  on 
the  American  War  had  vanished  like  a  mist,  except 
at  St.  James's,  where  the  King  still  unavailingly 
lamented  the  loss  of  "my  American  colonies,"  and 
curtailed  in  consequence  his  few  and  dull  entertain- 
ments. The  court  having  practically  abdicated  its 
functions,  society  in  London  looked  to  the  Prince 
of  Wales  to  give  it  a  lead,  and  he  responded  with 
a  will,  for  pleasure  was  to  him  the  breath  of  his 
nostrils.  Always  associated  with  him  now  was 
"  the  lovely  Fitzherbert."  Her  house  in  St.  James's 


153 


154  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Square,  where  she  dispensed  gracious  hospitality, 
was  a  favourite  meeting  -  place  of  his  intimates. 
She  accompanied  the  Prince  to  every  entertainment 
or  assembly  he  honoured  with  his  presence,  and 
she  was  received,  if  not  with  the  formal  homage 
accorded  to  a  Princess  of  Wales,  yet  with  a  deli- 
cate deference  which  was  in  itself  a  recognition 
of  her  unique  position.  By  little  acts  of  considera- 
tion, if  not  by  words,  she  was  tacitly  accorded 
the  position  of  the  Prince's  wife  by  all  the  great 
ladies  who  gave  her  their  friendship.  Of  these  a 
new  one  had  arrived  upon  the  scene  in  the  person 
of  the  Duchess  of  Cumberland,  the  wife  of  the 
King's  youngest  brother.  The  Duke  and  Duchess 
of  Cumberland  had  been  living  at  Avignon  for  the 
sake  of  economy,  and  they  were  in  France  at  the 
time  when  the  Prince  of  Wales  went  through  the 
marriage  ceremony  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  But 
in  the  spring  of  1786  they  returned  to  London, 
and  threw  open  to  the  fashionable  world  the  doors 
of  their  beautiful  mansion,  Cumberland  House,  in 
Pall  Mall,  which  adjoined  Carlton  House.  The 
Duchess  of  Cumberland  received  once  a  week,  and 
her  rooms  were  thronged  with  distinguished  guests. 
The  King's  threat  that  he  would  receive  no  one  at 
court  who  visited  Cumberland  House  had  proved 
an  empty  one.  So  general  was  the  response  to 
the  Duchess's  invitations,  that  the  King  could  not 
have  enforced  it  without  excluding  from  his  court 
half  of  London  society,  and  that  half  the  more 
brilliant.  The  Duke  of  Cumberland,  though  he 
was  anything  but  wise,  and  before  his  marriage 
anything  but  moral,  had  charming  manners ;  his 


CARLTON   HOUSE   AND   BRIGHTON     155 

Duchess  had  succeeded  in  reforming  him.  As  to 
the  Duchess,  there  was  nothing  to  be  urged  against 
her  except  that  she  had  entrapped  the  Duke  into 
marrying  her,  and  many  people  said  she  was  much 
too  good  for  him.  In  1786  she  was  no  longer 
young,  but  she  was  still  a  very  handsome,  fascinat- 
ing woman.  Even  Horace  Walpole,  who  cherished 
a  malevolent  hatred  of  both  the  Duke  and  the 
Duchess,  and  said  all  he  could  to  their  detriment, 
was  forced  to  admit  her  charm.  "  The  new 
Princess  of  the  Blood,"  he  wrote  at  the  time  of 
her  marriage,  "is  a  young  widow  of  twenty-four, 
extremely  pretty,  not  handsome,  very  well  made, 
with  the  most  amorous  eyes  in  the  world,  and  eye- 
lashes a  yard  long ;  coquette  beyond  measure, 
artful  as  Cleopatra,  and  completely  mistress  of  all 
her  passions  and  projects.  Indeed  eyelashes  three- 
quarters  of  a  yard  shorter  would  have  served  to 
conquer  such  a  head  as  she  has  turned." 1  And 
again  he  thus  describes  her :  "  There  was  some- 
thing so  bewitching  in  her  languishing  eyes,  which 
she  could  animate  to  enchantment  if  she  pleased, 
and  her  coquetry  was  so  active,  so  varied,  and  yet 
so  habitual,  that  it  was  difficult  not  to  see  through  it, 
and  yet  as  difficult  to  resist  it.  She  danced  divinely, 
and  had  a  great  deal  of  wit,  but  of  the  satiric  kind  ; 
and  as  she  had  haughtiness  before  her  rise,  no 
wonder  she  claimed  all  the  observances  due  to  her 
rank,  after  she  became  Duchess  of  Cumberland." 2 

The  Duchess  did  the  honours  of  her  house  with 
affability  and  dignity.     Her  unmarried  sister,  Lady 

1  Walpole's  "  Letters,"  vol.  v.  ed.  1857. 

2  Walpole's  "  Memoirs,"  vol.  iv. 


156  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Elizabeth  Luttrell,  aided  her  on  these  occasions, 
but  she  had  not  her  sister's  dignity — her  manners 
were  unpolished,  and  her  conversation  broad.  The 
Prince  of  Wales  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  invariably 
attended  the  weekly  assemblies  at  Cumberland 
House,  and  the  Duchess  treated  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
exactly  as  though  she  were  the  Prince's  acknow- 
ledged wife,  and  showed  her  marked  friendship. 
There  may  have  been  a  spice  of  malice  in  this,  for 
the  Duchess  knew  how  her  recognition  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  would  annoy  the  King  and  Queen. 

Queen  Charlotte  detested  the  Duchess,  and  de- 
clared that  she  and  the  Duke  pandered  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  follies  in  order  to  keep  their 
hold  on  him.  She  spoke  of  Cumberland  House  as 
though  it  were  a  hotbed  of  iniquity.  Certainly  the 
play  there  was  high,  but  everything  was  conducted 
with  propriety. * 

At  Carlton  House  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  now  the 
presiding  divinity,  and  at  all  parties  to  which  ladies 
were  invited  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  by  the  Prince's  wish 
and  desire,  played  the  part  of  hostess.  She  was  the 
central  star  of  a  brilliant  constellation.  The  Prince's 
court  was  far  from  being  the  stye  of  Epicurus, 
which  some  have  depicted  it.  To  quote  a  con- 
temporary writer :  "  Carlton  House  was  the  centre 
in  which  genius,  taste,  and  wit  were  to  be  found, 
and  to  which  elegance,  beauty,  and  refinement  in 
the  fair  sex  most  amply  resorted.  Never,  perhaps, 

1  The  French  Embassy,  then  at  Hyde  Park  Corner,  was  another 
centre  of  pleasure.  The  French  Ambassador,  Comte  d'Adhemar, 
gave  Sunday  evening  parties,  which  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  and  the  Prince 
of  Wales  frequently  attended.  The  Duke  of  Orleans  was  much  in 
England  at  this  time. 


CARLTON   HOUSE   AND   BRIGHTON     157 

had  society  in  England  boasted  such  an  union  of  the 
most  brilliant  qualities  of  the  human  mind  as  was 
assembled  at  the  table  of  His  Royal  Highness;  never 
had  female  charm  shown  with  more  dazzling  lustre 
than  at  the  parties  where  ladies  were  admitted."  l 

The  names  of  such  beautiful  and  brilliant  women 
as  the  Duchess  of  Cumberland,  the  Duchess  of 
Devonshire,  the  Duchess  of  Rutland,  Lady  Mel- 
bourne, Lady  Clare,  Lady  Clermont,  Mrs.  Crewe, 
Mrs.  Sheridan,  and  others  too  numerous  to  be 
mentioned  here,  form  a  guarantee  of  the  truth  of  this 
statement.  Nor  were  the  male  habitues  of  Carlton 
House  one  whit  inferior  to  the  women.  The  Prince 
had  his  wild  companions  doubtless,  but  among  his 
chosen  intimates  were  many  men  whose  reputation 
stood  high  in  the  State  by  virtue  of  their  character 
and  commanding  abilities.  When  we  remember  that 
the  Prince  was  only  twenty-four  years  of  age,  it  is 
remarkable  that  he  should  have  been  able  to  attract 
to  his  side,  and  to  hold  his  own  with,  men  so  dis- 
tinguished in  their  several  ways  as  Fox,  Sheridan, 
Burke,  Grey,  Francis,  Windham,  Erskine,  and 
many  more,  each  of  whom  by  virtue  of  his  talents 
was  deemed  an  ornament  to  any  society.  It  is 
a  proof  of  his  abilities  which  cannot  be  ex- 
plained away,  even  by  his  most  determined  de- 
tractors.2 Of  Fox  we  have  already  spoken,  of  the 

1  Adolphus's  "History  of  George  III."    London,  1841,  vol.  iii. 

2  Thackeray,  who  could  see  no  good  in  George  IV.,  writes  :  "At 
first  he  made  a  pretence  of  having  Burke,  and  Fox,  and  Sheridan  for 
his  friends.     But  how  could  such  men  be  serious  before  such  an  empty 
scapegrace  as  this  lad  ?     Fox  might  talk  dice  with  him,  and  Sheridan 
wine  ;  but  what  else  had  these  men  of  genius  in  common  with  their 
tawdry  young  host  of  Carlton  House?" 

Again  he  pours  contempt  in  the  well-known  passage  :  "  But  this 


158  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

others,  Sheridan1  formed  an  admirable  type.  He 
had  not  been  many  years  in  Parliament,  and  had 
already  attained  the  height  of  celebrity  as  a  man  of 
letters  and  as  a  politician.  His  social  qualities,  his 
brilliant  and  ready  wit,  and  his  serenity  of  temper, 
which  nothing  ruffled,  made  him  a  great  favourite 
with  the  Prince,  to  whom  he  filled  the  post  of  con- 
fidential adviser.  He  was  a  young  man,  still  in  the 
thirties,  and  his  handsome  features  had  not  yet 
been  marred  by  his  excesses  in  wine.  Very  different 
was  the  eloquent  Burke,2  who  had  a  special  link 
with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  from  the  fact  that  he  was 
half  a  Roman  Catholic.  Tall,  with  dignified  de- 
portment and  air  of  command  which  impressed 
the  House  of  Commons,  he  too  could  unbend 
at  Carl  ton  House,  and  pour  forth  words  in  his 
melodious  voice  that  "ranged  from  lofty  flights  of 
eloquence  to  polished  sarcasm.  He  was  to  the 
Prince  a  valuable  ally.  So  in  another  way  was 

George,  what  was  he  ?  I  look  through  all  his  life  and  recognise  but  a 
bow  and  a  grin.  I  try  and  take  him  to  pieces,  and  find  silk  stockings, 
padding,  stays,  a  coat  with  frogs  and  a  fur  collar,  a  star  and  a  blue 
ribbon,  a  pocket-handkerchief  prodigiously  scented,  one  of  Truefitt's 
best  nutty  brown  wigs  reeking  with  oil,  a  set  of  teeth  and  a  huge  black 
stock,  under-waistcoats,  more  under-waistcoats,  and  then  nothing." 
("  The  Four  Georges.") 

Against  Thackeray's  rhodomontade  may  fairly  be  set  the  opinion  of 
Sir  Walter  Scott.  "  He  (Sir  Walter  Scott)  talked  to  me  of  George  IV., 
of  whom  he  was  very  fond.  He  spoke  of  his  intellectual  faculty,  which 
he  considered  of  a  very  high  order.  He  said  his  exalted  and  good 
breeding  bespoke  nothing  but  kindness  and  benevolence  ;  but  he  also 
observed  that  when  he  was  roused  every  inch  of  him  was  a  King"  (Sir 
William  Knighton's  "  Memoirs,"  October  3,  1831).  And  it  must  be 
remembered  that  Sir  Walter  Scott  knew  George  IV.  and  Thackeray 
did  not.  , 

1  Richard   Brinsley  Sheridan  (1751-1816),  dramatist  and   parlia- 
mentary orator. 

2  Edmund  Burke  (1729-1797),  orator  and  politician. 


CARLTON   HOUSE   AND   BRIGHTON     159 

Sir  Philip  Francis,  the  reputed  author  of  the 
"  Letters  of  Junius,"  whose  biting  bitterness  some- 
times fell  in  with  the  Prince's  mood,  and  whose 
pen,  dipped  in  gall,  was  then  devoted  to  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Prince's  political  friends.1  Another  of 
this  brilliant  group  was  Charles  Grey,2  who  had  not 
long  left  Cambridge,  and  had  only  this  year  (1786) 
entered  Parliament,  where  he  had  lately  made 
a  speech  which  placed  him  in  the  first  rank  of 
debaters.  He  was  an  ardent  follower  of  Fox,  yet 
no  two  men  could  be  more  unlike  in  disposition. 
Grey  was  cold,  punctilious,  and  priggish  ;  but  he 
was  high-minded  and  honourable,  with  a  strong 
sense  of  his  duty  to  the  nation.  Just  now,  like  all 
the  young  hope  of  the  Whig  Party,  he  was  in  high 
favour  at  Carlton  House,  but  he  and  the  Prince 
were  too  dissimilar  in  character  and  temperament  to 
long  remain  friends.  More  to  the  Prince's  liking 
was  the  polished  and  wealthy  Windham  ("  Weather- 
cock Windham  "),  who,  like  so  many  of  the  Prince's 
friends,  dabbled  in  letters  as  well  as  politics ;  and 
the  clever  and  crafty  Erskine.  Lord  North  was  also 
a  visitor  to  Carlton  House,  sometime  the  King's 
trusted  Prime  Minister,  but  now  in  opposition  to 
Pitt,  and  hobnobbing  with  those  whom  the  King 
called  his  "  enemies."  He  was  a  welcome  guest 
at  the  Prince's  convivial  parties,  where  he  was  a 
great  favourite  with  the  younger  men  by  reason  of 
his  quick  wit  and  easy-going  temper.  He  bore  a 
striking  likeness  to  George  III.,  which  caused  the 

1  Sir   Philip   Francis  (1708-1773),  miscellaneous  writer  and  jour- 
nalist. 

2  Charles   Grey,   second    Earl   Grey  (1764-1845),  afterwards  the 
Prime  Minister  who  carried  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832. 


160  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Prince  of  Wales  to  suggest  that  "either  his  royal 
grandmother  or  North's  mother  must  have  played 
her  husband  false." 

It  must  be  admitted  the  Prince's  friends  were  not 
all  as  these,  and  even  among  them,  with  "Youth  on 
the  prow  and  Pleasure  at  the  helm,"  too  free  in- 
dulgence in  the  wine-cup  often  led  to  revels  which, 
though  perhaps  excusable  in  youth,  sadly  com- 
promised the  dignity  of  the  men  (not  all  of  them 
young)  who  took  part  in  them.  But  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  drinking  was  deep  and  play  was  high 
in  those  days,  not  at  Carlton  House  only,  but  in 
many  of  the  mansions  of  the  great.  It  must  be  added 
in  the  Prince's  favour  that,  in  an  age  when  hard- 
swearing  was  general,  the  language  at  the  Prince's 
assemblies,  though  free,  was  never  coarse,  and 
harshly  though  the  King  and  Queen  treated  him, 
he  never  sanctioned  a  word  in  public  which  would 
seem  to  show  a  want  of  respect  to  his  parents. 

Behind  all  the  brilliancy  and  extravagance  of 
Carlton  House  stalked  the  ever-growing  spectre  of 
the  Prince's  debts.  The  crisis  came,  perhaps  the 
Prince  had  timed  it  so  to  come,  with  the  close  of  the 
London  season  of  this  year  (1786).  Shortly  after 
the  half-year  the  bills  came  pouring  in,  and  other 
claims  fell  due.  The  Jews  would  advance  no  more. 
The  moneylenders  and  tradesmen  waxed  so  impor- 
tunate that  it  became  obvious,  even  to  the  Prince, 
that  something  must  be  done,  unless  bailiffs  were 
actually  to  enter  his  house.  The  subject  was  one 
of  long  and  anxious  discussion  between  the  Prince 
and  his  friends.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  Sheridan,  and 
Fox  were  called  into  council.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 


CARLTON   HOUSE   AND   BRIGHTON     161 

urged  immediate  and  drastic  retrenchment,  and 
Fox  agreed  with  her  view.  But  Sheridan  advised 
that  one  more  appeal  should  first  be  made  to  the 
Government.  Pitt  was  approached  with  a  demand 
for  ,£250,000,  that  sum  representing  roughly  the 
Prince's  debts.  The  Prime  Minister,  not  wishing  to 
take  upon  himself  the  onus  of  an  absolute  refusal, 
temporised  and  equivocated,  and  generally  behaved 
in  so  unsatisfactory  a  manner  that,  as  Pitt  wished, 
the  Prince  lost  patience,  and  made  a  direct  appeal 
to  his  father.  The  King  affected  to  consider  the 
matter,  and  with  the  knowledge  and  confidence  of 
Pitt  asked,  as  before,  for  another  detailed  statement 
of  liabilities — not,  as  the  event  proved,  because  he 
had  any  intention  of  paying  the  Prince's  debts,  but 
because  he  wanted  to  know  on  whom  and  how  his 
son  spent  his  money.  Again  the  Prince  fell  into  the 
trap.  A  schedule  was  duly  furnished,  and  on  it  was 
found  an  item  amounting  to  ,£54,000,  for  jewellery, 
plate,  furniture,  &c.,  which,  it  was  said,  the  Prince 
had  ordered  for  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  to  set  her  up  in 
her  new  establishment  in  London.  It  was  not  an 
unreasonable  amount,  all  things  considered ;  but  it 
served  to  anger  the  King,  and  furnished  a  pre- 
text for  him  to  refuse  to  help  his  son.  The  King 
wrote  the  Prince  a  short  letter,  in  terms  "not  very 
civil,"  declaring  that  neither  now,  nor  at  any  future 
time,  would  he  sanction  an  increase  in  his  son's 
allowance. 

The  King's  refusal  was  not  altogether  unex- 
pected ;  but  the  curt,  harsh  terms  in  which  his 
letter  was  written  enraged  the  Prince.  He  showed 
the  letter  to  his  friends  as  a  fresh  proof  that  his 

VOL.    I.  L 


1 62  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

father  "hated  "  him,  and  that  it  was  useless  for  him 
to  humiliate  himself  before  the  King.  Always  in 
extremes,  the  Prince  now  resolved  upon  a  decided 
step.  He  claimed  to  take  it  on  his  own  initiative, 
and  certainly  he  did  not  consult  either  Fox  or 
Sheridan  in  the  six  hours  which  passed  between 
his  receiving  the  King's  letter  and  his  replying  to 
it.  This  reply  took  the  form  of  an  ultimatum,  in 
which  he  informed  the  King,  that  since  he  would 
not  help  him,  he  would  immediately  shut  up  Carlton 
House,  live  as  a  private  gentleman,  and  set  aside 
^40,000  a  year  for  the  payment  of  his  debts,  so 
that  all  the  world  might  know  the  issue  between 
them.  This  threat  made  the  King  uncomfortable, 
for  he  had  sent  frequent  requests  to  Parliament  to 
pay  his  own  debts,  despite  the  enormous  Civil  List 
which  he  enjoyed,  and  he  had  no  wish  to  be  re- 
presented in  an  unpopular  light.  He  temporised, 
and  sent  the  Prince  a  message  through  Lord  South- 
ampton, saying  that  he  had  not  absolutely  refused, 
and  if  his  son  took  so  rash  a  step  he  must  abide  by 
the  consequences.  But  the  Prince's  blood  was  up ; 
he  refused  to  be  played  with  any  longer,  and  he 
replied  in  a  letter  intended  for  publication,  wherein, 
after  recapitulating  his  view  of  the  King's  refusal, 
he  said  that  he  could  not  delay  longer,  not  only 
because  of  "the  pressing  importunities  of  many 
indigent  and  deserving  creditors,"  but  because 
"further  procrastination  might  have  exposed  me 
to  legal  insults."  He  would  therefore  reduce  every 
expense  in  his  household,  even  those  necessary  to 
his  birth  and  rank,  "  till  I  have  totally  liberated 
myself  from  the  present  embarrassments  that 


CARLTON   HOUSE   AND   BRIGHTON     163 

oppress     me."1      Brave    words    these,     and    well 
worthy  of  a  high-spirited  young  prince. 

To  this  letter  the  King  vouchsafed  no  answer. 
Perhaps  he  did  not  believe  that  his  pleasure-loving 
and  self-indulgent  son  would  act  upon  his  words. 
If  so,  he  was  mistaken.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  influence 
strengthened  the  Prince  in  his  high  resolve.  He 
lost  not  a  day  in  carrying  his  words  into  effect. 
The  half- finished  work  at  Carlton  House  was 
stopped,  and  the  workmen  discharged  on  the 
moment ;  the  scaffolding  remained  a  witness  to 
all  London  of  the  straits  to  which  the  heir- 
apparent  was  reduced.  The  state  apartments  at 
Carlton  House  were  closed,  the  Prince  retaining 
only  a  few  private  rooms  for  his  own  use.  Half 
the  servants  were  discharged,  and  those  who  were 
retained  suffered  a  reduction  in  their  wages,  which 
it  is  only  fair  to  say  they  suffered  cheerfully — per- 
haps they  thought  that  the  evil  day  would  not  last 
long.  The  Prince  also  shut  up  his  stables,  and 
sold  his  horses  and  carriages,  liveries  and  harness, 
by  public  auction.  The  Prince  gained  little  by  the 
sale,  a  poor  ^7000 ;  and  the  proceeding  intensely 
annoyed  the  King  and  Queen.  But  the  epithets, 
"undignified,"  "revengeful,"  "theatrical,"  and  so 
forth,  which  the  court  party  freely  applied  to  the 
Prince's  retrenchments,  were  hardly  justified.  Pique 
had,  no  doubt,  something  to  do  with  this  sudden 
passion  for  economy,  but  there  was  also  a  real  and 
honourable  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Prince  to  pay 
his  just  debts,  and  free  himself  from  galling  embar- 
rassments. It  was  hoped  by  the  Prince's  friends 

1  Letter  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  George  III.,  July  9,  1786. 


164  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

that  this  spectacle  of  a  young  and  generous  Prince, 
nobly  striving  to  overcome  his  difficulties,  would 
touch  the  heart  of  the  nation.  Fox  took  this  view ; 
and  though  the  Prince  in  writing  to  the  King  had 
acted  without  consulting  him,  he  thoroughly  ap- 
proved of  the  course  the  Prince  was  now  following. 
Indeed,  Fox  seems  to  have  gone  further,  and  to 
have  approved,  if  not  suggested,  that  the  Prince 
should  retire  for  a  time  to  the  Continent,  where  it 
would  be  easier  for  him  to  carry  out  his  plan  of 
retrenchment.1 

If  the  Prince  had  gone  to  the  Continent  (probably 
to  Hanover)  a  practical  object-lesson  would  have 
been  presented  to  the  nation  of  the  King's  im- 
possibility to  live  in  harmony  with  his  sons,  or  to 
realise  the  advantage  of  having  them  in  England. 
At  that  time  three  of  the  King's  sons,  unable, 
or  unwilling,  to  stay  under  the  paternal  roof,  had 
been  sent  out  of  the  country.  The  Duke  of  York 
was  in  Hanover,  Prince  William  was  at  sea,  and 
Prince  Edward  at  Geneva.  Arrangements  were 
also  being  made  for  the  expatriation  of  the  younger 
Princes,  as  soon  as  they  were  old  enough,  to  the  ob- 
scure German  university  of  Gottingen,  which  was 
considered  by  the  King  a  superior  place  to  Oxford 
or  Cambridge  for  the  training  of  English  princes. 
Nor  were  the  King's  relations  with  his  brothers  any 
more  fortunate.  The  Duke  of  Gloucester  and  his 
blameless  Duchess  were  living  at  Florence,  under  the 
ban  of  the  royal  autocrat's  displeasure.  The  Duke 
and  Duchess  of  Cumberland  had  only  a  few  months 

1   Vide  Letter  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Mr.  Fox,  July  19,  1786.— 
Grey's  "  Life." 


CARLTON   HOUSE   AND   BRIGHTON     165 

before  returned  from  exile,  and  were  in  public  dis- 
grace at  court.  Of  all  the  King's  sons  "only  the 
eldest,"  says  Sir  Nathaniel  Wraxall,  "remained  at 
home  in  a  dismantled  palace,  all  the  state  apartments 
of  which  were  shut  up,  his  establishment  dismissed, 
and  himself  reduced  in  externals  to  the  condition  of 
a  private  gentleman."1 

The  Princes  could  not  all  have  been)  in  the  wrong 
and  the  King  alone  right.  George  III.  was  a  well- 
meaning  and  conscientious  man,  but  in  his  dealings 
with  his  brothers  and  sons  he  showed  himself  not 
only  unwise  but  harsh  and  despotic.  In  the  case  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales  this  harshness  came  perilously 
near  to  hatred.  The  Queen  was  also  to  blame,  for 
she  helped  to  stir  up  the  family  discord,  and,  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  the  little  German  Court  whence 
she  came,  she  aided  and  abetted  the  King  in  his 
petty  domestic  tyrannies.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
their  high-spirited  sons,  born  and  bred  in  England, 
did  not  submit  kindly  to  so  irksome  a  yoke.  An 
instance  of  the  King's  unwisdom  in  dealing  with  his 
sons  was  shown  in  the  open  ridicule  which  he  poured 
upon  the  Prince  of  Wales's  plan  of  economy.  He 
made  merry  with  his  courtiers  over  the  unfinished 
work  at  Carlton  House,  he  exhibited  to  them  a 
model  which  the  Prince  had  sent  him  of  what  the 
palace  would  ultimately  be  like,  and  he  asked 
derisively  when  it  would  be  finished.  The  jest  was 
not  very  well-timed,  nor  in  the  best  of  taste,  for  what- 
ever were  the  Prince's  extravagances  he  had  borne 
for  three  years  the  principal  burden  of  representing 
royalty  in  the  metropolis.  Though  the  Prince  in  his 

1  Wraxall's  "  Posthumous  Memoirs." 


1 66  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

money  troubles  did  not  carry  public  sympathy  with 
him,  neither  did  the  King  in  his  refusal  to  help  him. 
It  was  well  known  that  in  the  King's  court  economy 
was  practised  to  the  verge  of  meanness,  yet  the 
King  never  had  enough  money,  and  was  frequently 
coming  to  Parliament  for  more.  The  nation 
wondered  what  became  of  the  money,  and  many 
said  it  went  to  the  Queen's  needy  German  relatives, 
but  the  truth  was  that  the  greater  part  of  it  was  used 
by  the  King  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  his  political 
friends  in  office.  No  King  spent  less  on  himself 
than  George  III.,  or  led  a  simpler  or  more  moral 
life,  but  public  opinion  was  not  with  him  on  this 
point ;  it  was  thought  that,  if  the  Prince  had  to  be 
helped,  his  father  was  the  one  to  help  him.  This 
view  found  expression  in  a  caricature  of  the  day, 
which  depicted  the  King  and  Queen  coming  out 
of  the  treasury  loaded  with  money-bags,  and  the 
Prince  following  in  the  rags  of  the  prodigal  son. 

But  the  cleverest  of  the  satirical  prints  which 
refer  to  the  breaking-up  of  the  Prince's  establish- 
ment at  Carl  ton  House  parodies  the  well-known 
scene  in  Sheridan's  School  for  Scandal.  The 
Prince,  as  Charles  Surface,  holds  a  mock  auction, 
and  knocks  down  the  family  portraits.  Lot  i  is 
the  picture  of  "Farmer  George  and  his  Wife," 
which  is  described  as  going  for  "  not  more  than 
one  crown."  Lot  2  is  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  Through 
the  open  door  is  seen  Tattersall's  and  the  sale  of  the 
Prince's  stud.  This  sale  lent  credence  to  the  rumour 
that  the  Prince  was  going  to  Hanover  for  a  time. 

But  the  Prince  did  not  go  to  Hanover.  He  went 
to  Brighton. 


CARLTON   HOUSE  AND   BRIGHTON     167 

Brighton,  or  "  Brighthelmstone,"  as  it  was  then 
called,  had  not  long  emerged  from  the  obscurity  of 
a  fishing  village ;  it  bore  little  resemblance  to  the 
"  London  by  the  sea  "  we  know  to-day.  Kemptown 
had  not  been  built,  King's  Road  had  not  been 
planned,  and  Hove  was  nothing  but  a  hamlet. 
Brighton  was  at  the  beginning  of  its  prosperous 
career,  yet  it  was  nearer  its  social  zenith  then  than 
now,  for  the  heir-apparent  to  the  throne,  "  the  first 
gentleman  in  Europe,"  the  incomparable  arbiter  of 
fashion,  honoured  it  with  frequent  visits,  and  made 
it  his  favourite  residence.  The  Prince  first  went 
to  Brighton  in  1783,  on  a  visit  to  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Cumberland,  who  were  residing  there 
for  the  summer ;  and  some  have  it  (though  there  is 
no  proof)  that  he  first  met  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  there. 
He  came  again  in  1784,  having  been  recommended 
sea-bathing  for  a  malady  to  which  he  was  always 
subject,  a  swelling  of  the  glands  of  the  throat,  which, 
by  the  way,  led  to  the  wearing  of  the  preposterously 
high  collars  and  stocks  which  he  made  fashionable. 
This  time  he  was  followed  by  many  of  the  great  world. 
We  read  of  Mr.  Pitt  and  Mr.  Fox  being  there,  the 
Duke  of  Chartres,  and  the  Duke  of  Queensberry. 
The  Prince  stayed  in  a  house  a  little  way  back 
from  the  sea,  surrounded  by  trees  and  a  garden, 
and  with  a  fine  view.  It  belonged  to  Lord  Egre- 
mont's  brother.  The  Brighton  air  suited  the  Prince 
so  well,  and  he  liked  the  house  so  much,  that  he 
bought  the  property.  He  gave  orders  that  most  of 
the  old  house  should  be  pulled  down,  and  a  new 
one  erected.  The  work  was  begun  at  once.  The 
Prince  came  down  to  Brighton  in  the  summer  of 


1 68  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

1 785  to  superintend  the  operations,  and  it  was  during 
this  visit  that  he  was  said  to  have  gone  across  to 
the  French  coast  to  see  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  By  the 
next  summer  (1786)  the  Pavilion  was  almost  finished 
— that  is  to  say,  so  far  as  any  house  in  which  the 
Prince  lived  could  ever  be  finished,  for  building 
was  with  him  a  mania. 

At  this  period  the  Marine  Pavilion,  as  it  was 
first  called  (later,  the  Royal  Palace),  had  not  taken  on 
its  present  Chinese,  pseudo-oriental  aspect.  The 
most  remarkable  feature  of  the  building,  as  it  was 
then  altered  for  the  Prince,  consisted  of  a  circular 
edifice  in  the  centre  crowned  by  a  dome  or  cupola : 
this  was  connected  by  Ionic  colonnades  to  the  two 
wings.  The  north  wing  was  new,  but  the  other 
wing  was  merely  adapted  from  the  original  villa. 
There  were  balconies  and  verandahs  so  as  to  admit 
air  and  exclude  heat,  and  a  view  of  the  sea  could  be 
obtained  from  almost  every  window.  Before  the 
Pavilion,  looking  towards  the  sea,  was  a  lawn,  with 
shrubs  and  flowers,  separated  only  from  the  public 
grounds  by  a  low  wall  and  trellis-work,  for  in  those 
days  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  no  objection  to  see 
and  be  seen.  The  Pavilion,  in  short,  was  merely  a 
pleasant  villa,  not  a  royal  residence.  It  was  a  re- 
treat for  a  prince,  but  not  for  his  court,  planned 
something  after  the  manner  of  the  pavilion  of  "  Sans 
Souci "  in  the  gardens  of  Potsdam,  where  Frederick 
the  Great  loved  to  pass  quiet  days.  It  was  some 
years  later,  when  the  Prince  tried  to  convert  this 
pleasant  retreat  into  a  royal  palace,  that  it  assumed 
the  grotesque  aspect  it  wears  to-day. 

The  Prince  left  his  semi-dismantled  palace  in  Pall 


CARLTON   HOUSE   AND   BRIGHTON     169 

Mall  on  July  n,  and,  true  to  his  new  plan  of  re- 
trenchment, he  travelled  down  to  Brighton  in  a 
hired  postchaise — a  fact  which  was  duly  noticed 
by  the  newspapers  and  caricaturists.  One  cartoon 
represents  the  Prince  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  leaving 
London  in  a  hired  coach.  The  lady  is  studying 
"  The  Principles  of  Economy."  The  coach  is  piled 
high  with  furniture,  vegetables,  meat,  small  beer,  and 
raisin  wine.  Weltje,  the  Prince's  major-domo,  is 
driving.  The  cartoon  was  not  correct,  for  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  did  not  accompany  the  Prince  to 
Brighton,  but  followed  him  a  fortnight  later.  She, 
also  on  economy  bent,  had  given  up  her  house  in 
St.  James's  Square,  and  the  delay  in  her  going  to 
Brighton  arose  from  the  need  of  finding  a  house  for 
her  there,  as  she  refused,  until  her  marriage  with  the 
Prince  was  openly  acknowledged,  to  live  under  the 
same  roof  with  him.  A  pretty,  modest  villa  was 
found  for  her  close  to  the  Pavilion,  a  little  house 
with  green  shutters,  and  separated  only  from  the 
mansion  by  a  strip  of  garden.1 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  arrived  on  July  24.  A  local 
authority  says  that  she  then  "  came  to  Brighton  for 
the  first  time  recorded." 2  But  it  is  almost  certain 
that  she  had  visited  Brighton  before ;  she  appears 
to  have  been  well  known  there  in  1782,  in  the 
days  before  she  was  famous,  and  there  is  a 
tradition  that  the  Prince  followed  her  to  Brighton 
during  his  ardent  courtship  in  the  summer  of  1784. 

1  This  villa  was  situated  quite  near  to  what  is  now  the  North  Gate. 
It  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  house  which  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
built  to  the  south  of  the  Pavilion,  on  the  Steine. 

2  "The  Brighton  Pavilion  and  its  Royal  Associations."    By  J.  G. 
Bishop. 


i  yo  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

His  great  liking  for  the  place  dated  from  that  time, 
and  it  is  said  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  inspired  it. 
That  is  tradition  only,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  was  devoted  to  Brighton  ;  that  she,  more 
than  any  one  else,  confirmed  the  fickle  Prince  in  his 
attachment  to  the  place  ;  and  that  his  presence  and 
her  influence  promoted  the  prosperity  of  the  town. 
Thus  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  equally  with  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  Brighton  was  indebted  for  more  than 
half-a-century  of  popularity  in  the  world  of  fashion 
almost  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  an  English 
seaside  place. 

The  Brighton  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  day  was  not 
ungrateful  to  her.  She  was  always  welcomed  there 
with  respect,  and  to  the  end  of  her  long  life  that 
respect  never  wavered.  It  was  something  quite 
apart  from  her  connection  with  the  Prince,  though 
the  Prince  himself  was  most  popular  with  the  honest 
folk  of  Brighton  ;  they  shouted  themselves  hoarse 
whenever  he  came ;  and  whatever  he  did  they,  at 
least,  were  not  disposed  to  be  hard  upon  his  follies. 

The  Prince  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  passed  the 
summer  of  1786  very  quietly  at  Brighton.  The 
Prince  entertained  little,  and  kept  up  no  state.  The 
wilder  spirits  among  his  friends  were  absent.  Only 
Sheridan  and  a  few  others  were  there. 

The  Prince  superintended  the  improvements  in 
the  Pavilion  (as  they  were  so  near  completion  they 
were  not  stopped  like  those  at  Carlton  House). 
He  walked  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  daily  on  the 
broad  open  space  between  the  Pavilion  gardens  and 
the  sea,  known  as  the  Steine.  This  became  the 
fashionable  parade,  where  during  the  next  half- 


CARLTON   HOUSE   AND   BRIGHTON     171 

century  might  be  met  at  various  times  nearly  all  the 
most  celebrated  men  and  women  in  England — all 
the  princes,  politicians,  beauties,  and  beaux  that  made 
up  the  brilliant  society  of  the  later  Georgian  era. 
The  Prince  mixed  freely  with  the  throng  on  the 
Steine,  chatting  with  those  whom  he  knew,  and 
bowing  and  smiling  to  the  promenaders  with 
affability  and  good-nature. 

The  Prince  was  now  quite  a  reformed  character ; 
under  the  influence  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  he  drank 
less,  gambled  not  at  all,  moderated  his  language, 
and  seemed  in  every  way  determined  to  lead  a 
new  life.  "People  talked  much  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales's  reform,  particularly  in  this  spot  which  he 
has  chosen  as  the  place  of  his  retreat,"  wrote 
the  Earl  of  Mornington  to  the  Duke  of  Rutland, 
July  18,  I786.1  "Mrs.  Fitzherbert  is  here,"  he 
added,  "and  they  say  with  child."  This  rumour, 
which  was  generally  credited  at  that  time,  had 
no  foundation  in  fact. 

The  marked  improvement  in  the  Prince's  mode 
of  life  was  well  known  at  Windsor,  but  it  made  no 
difference  to  the  hostility  of  the  King  and  Queen. 
In  August  1786,  Mary  Nicholson,  a  madwoman, 
made  an  attempt  to  stab  the  King,  when  he  was 
alighting  from  his  carriage.  The  moment  the 
Prince  heard  the  news  he  posted  off  to  Windsor  to 
offer  his  congratulations  to  his  father  on  his  escape, 
but  the  King  refused  to  see  him,  though  he  was  in 
the  next  room  to  that  in  which  the  Queen  received 
her  son.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert' s  great  desire  was  to 
bring  about  a  reconciliation  between  the  Prince  and 
1  Rutland  Papers,  op.  cit. 


172  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

his  father.  It  was  her  theory  that,  if  the  Prince 
would  only  persist  for  a  period  in  his  plan  of  re- 
trenchment and  reform,  the  King's  heart  would 
surely  soften  towards  him.  The  Prince,  who  knew 
the  King  better  than  she  did,  declared  that  his 
father  would  never  help  him.  But  he  was  so  much 
under  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  good  influence  at  this  time, 
and  so  happy  in  her  society,  that  he  did  whatever 
she  wished. 


CHAPTER  X 

DENIAL  OF  THE   MARRIAGE 
(1787) 

THE  Prince  of  Wales  was  very  little  in  London 
during  the  winter  of  1786-1787.  He  was  too 
poor  to  be  at  Carlton  House,  and  he  lived  for  the 
most  part  in  houses  lent  to  him,  like  that  of  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester's  at  Bagshot,  and  Lord  North's 
at  Bushey.  He  was  very  hard  pressed  for  money. 
The  Duke  of  Orleans,  always  his  evil  counsellor, 
urged  him  to  accept  a  substantial  loan.  The  Duke 
of  Portland  heard  of  it  in  Paris,  and  wrote  in  great 
alarm  to  Sheridan,  who  consulted  Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 
They  both  exerted  themselves  to  prevent  the 
Prince  from  receiving  aid  from  a  foreign  prince, 
and  successfully.  They  urged  that  he  only  had  to 
wait  a  little  longer,  for  public  opinion  was  slowly 
declaring  itself  on  his  side. 

The  Prince  had  now  persisted  in  his  plan  of 
economy  for  six  months.  His  small  debts  were 
all  settled,  and  a  dividend  of  nine  per  cent,  on  the 
larger  ones  had  been  paid.  The  strained  relations 
between  the  King  and  his  son  had  become  a  public 
scandal,  and  reflected  on  the  credit  of  the  dynasty. 
The  Prince's  friends,  and  indeed  many  men  on 
both  sides  of  politics,  thought  it  was  time  that  this 
state  of  affairs  ended.  But  the  obstinacy  of  the 


174  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

King,  and  the  reluctance  of  responsible  politicians 
to  intrude  into  what  was  primarily  a  family  quarrel, 
seemed  to  render  any  private  settlement  impossible. 
Early  in  1787  a  meeting  of  the  Prince's  political 
friends  and  supporters  was  held  at  Mr.  Pelham's,  to 
discuss  the  situation.  The  Prince  was  present. 
Some  were  for  bringing  the  Prince's  debts  before 
Parliament,  but  the  majority  were  opposed  to  it. 
The  discussion  was  superficial,  for  in  the  minds  of 
all  was  the  question  whether  the  Prince  was  married 
to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  or  not.  The  real  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  a  Parliamentary  settlement  lay  in  the 
dread  of  a  public  discussion  of  his  alleged  marriage. 
Every  one  present  knew  this,  but  the  subject  was 
not  so  much  as  hinted  at.  It  is  no  wonder,  there- 
fore, that  the  conference  broke  up  without  coming 
to  any  decision.  The  Duke  of  Portland  and  all  of 
the  Whig  leaders,  except  Fox  and  Sheridan,  were 
opposed  to  pledging  the  party  to  support  the  Prince. 
They  knew  how  profoundly  the  Protestant  feeling 
in  the  country  had  been  stirred  by  the  rumour  of 
his  secret  marriage  to  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  they 
feared  that  they  would  seem  to  condone  his  action 
by  advocating  his  case  in  Parliament.  They  could 
not  understand  the  attitude  of  Fox,  who  was  gene- 
rally astute  in  reading  the  signs  of  the  times.  He 
was  the  Prince's  chosen  friend  and  mentor,  and 
bound  to  him  by  special  ties.  Yet  instead  of 
joining  with  the  great  Whig  Lords  in  deprecating 
any  discussion  of  the  subject,  he  stood  apart  and 
kept  his  own  counsel.  He  had  resolved  upon  inde- 
pendent action,  and  consulted  neither  the  Prince 
nor  his  political  friends.  He  carried  in  his  pocket, 


DENIAL  OF  THE   MARRIAGE         175 

unknown  to  any  save  himself,  the  Prince's  evasive 
letter  of  denial,  written  on  the  eve  of  his  marriage 
to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  That  letter  was  sufficient  for 
Fox's  purpose,  and  there  is  no  evidence  to  show 
that  after  he  received  it  he  spoke  to  the  Prince 
again  on  the  subject.  The  Prince,  we  may  be  sure, 
did  not  mention  the  matter  to  him,  for  he  never 
voluntarily  alluded  to  unpleasant  topics.  Yet  the 
papers  were  full  of  the  marriage,  and  just  at  this  awk- 
ward moment  that  eccentric  politician,  Home  Tooke, 
added  fuel  to  the  flame  of  public  curiosity  by  pub- 
lishing his  celebrated  pamphlet  on  "The  Reported 
Marriage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,"  in  which,  after 
treating  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  with  not  unusual 
contempt,  he  wound  up  by  declaring:  "  It  is  not  from 
the  debates  in  either  House  of  Parliament  that  the 
public  will  receive  any  solid  or  useful  information  on 
a  point  of  so  much  importance  to  the  nation,  to  the 
Sovereign  on  the  throne,  to  his  royal  successor,  and 
to  a  most  amiable  and  justly  valued  Female  Character 
whom  I  conclude  to  be  in  all  respects  both  legally^ 
really,  worthily,  and  happily  for  this  country,  her 
Royal  Highness  the  Princess  of  Wales."1 

Though  the  Prince  maintained  silence  on  the 
all-important  subject  of  his  marriage,  he  must 
have  known  what  was  in  the  minds  of  all  his 
friends.  He  knew  also  why  the  Whig  leaders 
refused  to  champion  his  cause,  but  he  affected 

1  "A  Letter  to  a  Friend  on  the  Reported  Marriage  of  His  Royal 
Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales."  By  J.  Home  Tooke.  London,  1787. 

John  Home  Tooke  (1736-1812),  politician  and  pamphleteer,  an 
ex-clergyman,  was  returned  for  Old  Sarum  1801,  but  was  prevented 
from  taking  his  seat  in  the  House  by  an  Act  passed  for  declaring 
clergymen  ineligible. 


1 76  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

ignorance,  and  quarrelled  with  the  Duke  of  Port- 
land because  he  would  not  support  his  application 
to  Parliament.  But  still  the  Prince  persisted  in  his 
resolution  of  bringing  the  question  of  his  debts 
before  Parliament,  in  some  form  or  other,  and  since 
the  Whigs  as  a  party  would  not  take  up  the  matter, 
it  was  resolved  to  entrust  it  to  an  independent 
member.  Such  a  one  was  found  in  Alderman 
Newnham,  member  of  Parliament  for  the  city  of 
London,  a  man  of  high  repute  in  financial  circles, 
though  not  of  great  weight  in  the  House.  The 
Tories  said  that  social  ambition  was  the  reason  of 
Newnham's  championing  this  unpopular  cause,  but 
there  appears  no  reason  to  doubt  his  sincerity. 

On  April  20,  1787,  Alderman  Newnham  rose  in 
the  House  of  Commons  to  ask  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  (Mr.  Pitt} — 

"  Whether  it  was  the  design  of  the  Ministers  to 
bring  forward  any  proposition  to  rescue  the  Prince 
of  Wales  from  his  present  very  embarrassed  condi- 
tion ?  for  though  he  thought  that  His  Royal  High- 
ness's  conduct,  during  his  difficulties,  had  reflected 
greater  honour  and  glory  on  his  character  than 
the  most  splendid  diadem  in  Europe  had  upon  the 
wearer  of  it,  yet  it  must  be  very  disagreeable  to  His 
Royal  Highness  to  be  deprived  of  those  comforts 
and  enjoyments  which  so  properly  belonged  to  his 
high  rank." * 

Mr.  Pitt  answered:  "That  as  it  was  not  his 
duty  to  bring  forward  a  subject  of  such  a  nature  as 
that  suggested  by  the  hon.  gentleman  except  at  the 

1  "Parliamentary  History,"  vol.  xxvi.  (1786-1788),  from  which  the 
following  quotations  and  account  of  the  debates  are  mainly  taken. 


DENIAL  OF   THE   MARRIAGE         177 

command  of  his  Majesty,  it  was  not  necessary  for 
him  to  say  more  in  reply  to  the  question  than  that 
he  had  not  been  honoured  with  such  a  command." 

Alderman  Newnham  then  gave  notice  that  he 
should  bring  forward  a  motion  on  May  4. 

This  announcement  caused  considerable  pertur- 
bation in  the  minds  of  the  King  and  his  Ministers, 
who  were  anxious  to  prevent  a  discussion  which 
could  reflect  no  credit  .on  any  one  concerned  in  it. 
They  could  not  understand  the  Prince's  move,  for 
they  had  always  felt  confident  that  he  would  not 
force  matters  to  a  crisis,  lest  the  subject  of  his 
marriage  should  be  brought  forward.  But  since  he 
was  not  amenable  to  reason,  it  was  resolved  to  see 
what  veiled  threats  would  do.  Instead,  therefore, 
of  waiting  for  events  to  follow  their  usual  course 
and  leaving  the  matter  to  be  discussed  on  May  4, 
four  days  after  Alderman  Newnham's  notice  (on 
April  24),  Pitt  suddenly  sprang  the  subject  on  a 
crowded  House. 

Mr.  Pitt  said:  "That  perceiving  the  House  was 
so  full,  he  would  take  the  opportunity  of  alluding  to 
a  subject  of  the  highest  importance  in  itself  and  of 
the  greatest  novelty,  which  of  all  others  required 
the  greatest  delicacy  which  could  possibly  be  used 
in  its  discussion.  He  wished  to  know  the  scope 
and  tendency  of  the  motion  coming  on  next  week, 
and  whether  the  honourable  magistrate  intended  to 
persevere  with  it." 

But  Alderman  Newnham  was  not  to  be  drawn. 
After  a  hurried  consultation  with  his  friends  he 
answered  : — 

"|That  he  did  not  mean,  as  the  right  honourable 

VOL.  i.  M 


178  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

gentleman  had  phrased  it,  to  force  forward  the 
subject  of  the  Prince  of  Wales's  situation.  It  in  fact 
forced  itself  forward,  but  he  should  have  been  ex- 
tremely well  pleased  to  have  had  the  matter  taken 
out  of  his  hands  by  his  Majesty's  Ministers.  As  to 
the  particular  parliamentary  form  which  it  would 
wear,  it  really  had  not  been  decided  upon  by  him- 
self, but  the  object  of  it  he  had  no  objection  to  state, 
as  it  was  to  rescue  his  Royal  Highness  from  his 
present  embarrassed  situation." 

In  this  he  was  supported  by  Fox,  who  thought 
he  saw  a  sign  of  weakness  in  Pitt's  thus  bringing 
forward  the  subject. 

Mr.  Fox  said :  "  That  he  entirely  agreed  with 
the  right  honourable  gentleman  that  it  was  a  subject 
of  peculiar  novelty,  but  so  were  the  circumstances 
that  gave  rise  to  it,  and  it  was  also  of  equal  delicacy, 
but  as  that  delicacy  would  arise  from  the  necessity 
of  going  into  an  investigation  of  the  causes  from 
which  these  circumstances  originated,  for  that  must 
prove  a  painful  work  to  the  House,  ...  he  hoped 
that  the  business  might  be  forestalled,  and  some- 
thing done  in  the  interim  to  render  it  unnecessary 
for  the  honourable  magistrate  to  prosecute  his  in- 
tention." 

Mr.  Pitt  answered :  "He  admitted  that  the 
principal  delicacy  of  the  question  would  lie  in  the 
necessity  for  inquiring  into  the  causes  of  the  circum- 
stances which  were  proposed  to  be  brought  into 
discussion,  and  for  that  reason  he  would,  from  his 
profound  respect  for  every  part  of  the  illustrious 
family  who  were  concerned  in  it,  wish  if  possible  to 
avoid  discussion.  If  the  honourable  magistrate 


DENIAL   OF   THE   MARRIAGE         179 

should  determine  to  bring  it  forward  he  would, 
however  distressing  it  might  be. to  him,  as  an  in- 
dividual, discharge  his  duty  to  the  public,  and  enter 
fully  into  the  subject." 

Pitt  spoke  with  meaning,  and  there  was  a  veiled 
threat  in  his  words  which  caused  a  considerable  sen- 
sation in  the  House.  Every  one  understood  what 
Pitt  meant  when  he  spoke  of  the  "necessity  of 
inquiring  into  the  causes."  But  the  Prince's  friends 
deemed  it  best  to  ignore  the  menace  at  the  time, 
and  the  subject  dropped. 

Three  days  later,  on  April  27,  Alderman  Newn- 
ham  again  brought  forward  the  subject.  After 
reminding  the  House  of  what  had  passed,  and 
regretting  that  the  Ministers  had  done  nothing  in 
the  meanwhile  to  meet  the  Prince's  wishes,  he 
moved : — 

"  That  an  humble  address  be  presented  to  his 
Majesty,  praying  him  to  take  into  his  royal  con- 
sideration the  present  embarrassed  state  of  affairs  of 
his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  to  grant 
him  such  relief  as  his  royal  wisdom  should  think 
fit,  and  that  the  House  would  make  good  the  same." 

Before  Pitt  could  rise  to  reply  to  this  challenge  an 
interruption  came  from  an  unexpected  quarter,  where 
from  below  the  gangway  on  the  Ministerial  side  of 
the  House  sat,  in  solid  phalanx,  the  Tory  squires. 
Their  mouthpiece  was  Rolle,1  one  of  the  members 

1  John  Rolle  (1750-1 842),  M.P.  for  Devonshire,  had  entered  Parlia- 
ment in  1780  as  a  supporter  of  Pitt.  In  1796  he  was  created  Lord 
Rolle.  He  was  the  aged  peer  who  stumbled  on  the  steps  of  Queen 
Victoria's  throne  when  he  offered  homage  at  her  Coronation.  He 
was  twice  married  ;  his  second  wife  survived  him  for  many  years,  and 
died  so  lately  as  1885. 


i8o  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

of  Parliament  for  the  county  of  Devon.  Rolle  was 
a  typical  country  squire,  uncouth  in  person,  rough 
in  manners,  halting  in  speech,  impervious  either  to 
bribery  or  flattery,  and  noted  for  his  sturdy  inde- 
pendence. He  was  the  hero  of  that  satirical  effusion 
the  "  Rolliad,"  and  an  avowed  enemy  of  Fox.  No 
sooner  had  Alderman  Newnham  sat  down  than  Mr. 
Rolle  rose,  and,  speaking  with  dogged  emphasis  and 
a  broad  Devonshire  accent,  said  : — 

"If  ever  there  was  a  question  which  called  par- 
ticularly upon  the  attention  of  that  class  of  persons, 
the  country  gentlemen,  it  would  be  the  question 
which  the  honourable  Alderman  had  declared  his 
determination  to  agitate,  because  it  was  a  question 
which  went  immediately  to  affect  our  Constitution  in 
Church  and  State.  Whenever  it  should  be  brought 
forward  he  would  rise  the  moment  the  honourable 
Alderman  sat  down  and  move  the  previous  question, 
being  convinced  that  it  ought  not  to  be  discussed." 

Rolle's  words  made  a  profound  impression  on  the 
House,  especially  on  the  Ministerial  benches.  Rolle 
represented  the  most  influential  section  of  the 
Tory  party,  the  country  squires,  those  staunch  up- 
holders of  the  Established  Church,  who  were  noted 
for  their  strong  dislike  of  Nonconformists,  both 
Roman  Catholics  and  Protestant  Dissenters. 

Fox  was  unaccountably  absent  from  this  dis- 
cussion. He  said  afterwards  that  he  did  not  know 
the  matter  was  to  be  brought  forward  on  that  day, 
but  surely  he  must  have  known  it,  as  he  was  in 
close  touch  with  Alderman  Newnham.  But  Sheridan 
was  present,  and  he  represented  in  an  especial 
manner  the  Prince  of  Wales.  He  threw  himself 


DENIAL   OF   THE   MARRIAGE         181 

into  the  breach,  and  strove  in  vain  to  remove  the 
impression  made  by  Rolle's  words,  by  affecting  not 
to  understand  their  meaning. 

Mr.  Sheridan  said  :  "He  differed  much  from  those 
who  represented  that  alarming  consequences  might 
ensue  from  the  present  motion,  and  that  the  existence 
of  Church  and  State  was  endangered  by  its  agitation  : 
he  did  not  well  know  what  precise  meaning  to  affix 
to  expressions  of  this  kind,  but  he  was  well  convinced 
that  the  motion  originated  only  in  a  consciousness 
of  the  unparalleled  difficulties  under  which  the  heir 
to  the  Crown  was  so  long  suffered  to  labour.  .  .  . 
Whatever  was  brought  forward  he  knew  would 
meet  with  an  unequivocal  and  complete  reply,  such 
as  he  was  assured  his  Royal  Highness  would  him- 
self give,  as  a  peer  of  Great  Britain,  were  a  question 
of  this  nature  to  be  agitated  in  another  House. 
How  far  such  a  discussion  might  be  proper  he  left 
to  the  feeling  of  the  gentleman  to  whom  he  alluded 
to  decide." 

But  the  sturdy  Rolle  would  have  no  ambiguity. 
Mr.  Rolle  rose  again  to  declare  that :  "  If  a  motion 
were  urged,  which  he  thought  highly  improper  to  be 
proposed,  the  honourable  gentleman  would  find  he 
would  not  flinch  from  it,  but  act  as  became  an 
independent  country  gentleman  to  act  upon  such  an 
occasion,  and  state  without  reserve  his  sentiments, 
according  as  the  matter  struck  him.  He  would  do 
his  duty." 

Pitt  now  thought  fit  to  intervene.  From  his  seat 
on  the  Ministerial  bench  he  had  seen  the  impression 
which  Rolle's  words  had  produced,  and  the  con- 
fusion they  had  wrought  among  the  Prince's  friends, 


1 82  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

and  he  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity.  He 
hoped  to  frighten  the  Alderman  into  withdraw- 
ing his  motion.  Therefore,  speaking  with  great 
deliberation,  and  emphasising  his  meaning  with 
significant  gestures — 

Mr.  Pitt  said :  "  He  was  very  much  concerned  that, 
by  the  perseverance  of  the  hon.  member  (Newnham], 
he  should  be  driven,  though  with  infinite  reluctance, 
to  the  disclosure  of  circumstances  which  he  should 
otherwise  think  it  his  duty  to  conceal''  (Sensation.) 
"  Whenever  the  motion  should  be  agitated  he  was 
ready  to  avow  his  determined  and  fixed  resolution 
to  give  it  his  absolute  negative." 

There  could  be  no  doubt  about  Pitt's  meaning, 
and  when  he  sat  down  several  members  of  Parlia- 
ment rose  one  after  another,  deprecated  the  motion, 
and  urged  Alderman  Newnham  to  withdraw  it. 
But  the  Alderman  made  no  sign,  and  presently 
Sheridan  rose  again.  So  far  from  yielding,  he 
was  quick  to  seize  the  advantage  of  Pitt's  indis- 
creet speech.  A  license,  which  might  be  allowed 
in  a  private  member  of  Parliament  like  Rolle,  could 
hardly  be  permitted  in  a  Minister  of  the  Crown. 
Speaking  with  great  warmth — 

Mr.  Sheridan  said :  "He  was  unable  to  compre- 
hend why  the  notice  of  this  motion  should  have  pro- 
duced any  alarm  amongst  the  country  members,  who 
must  be  aware  that  the  Prince  should  not  be  suffered 
to  continue  in  such  embarrassed  circumstances.  .  .  . 
Some  honourable  gentlemen  had  thought  proper  to 
express  their  anxious  wishes  that  the  business  should 
be  deferred,  but  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
(Pitt)  had  erected  an  insuperable  barrier  to  such 


DENIAL  OF   THE   MARRIAGE         183 

a  step.  It  would  then  seem  to  the  country,  to  all 
Europe,  that  the  Prince  had  yielded  to  terror  what 
he  had  denied  to  argument.  What  could  the  world 
think  of  such  conduct,  but  that  he  fled  from  inquiry 
and  dared  not  face  his  accusers  ?  But  if  such  was 
the  design  of  these  threats,  he  believed  they  would 
find  that  the  author  of  them  had  as  much  mistaken 
the  feelings  as  the  conduct  of  the  Prince." 

Sheridan's  speech  was  nothing  but  a  piece  of 
bluff.  He  knew  that  Pitt  either  would  not,  or 
could  not,  prove  his  words,  and  he  wished  to  force 
him  to  withdraw  them.  Pitt  had  only  uttered  his 
threat  in  the  hope  of  forcing  a  withdrawal  of  the 
motion.  When  he  saw  that  the  Prince's  friends 
were  determined  to  brave  the  matter  out,  he  was 
for  the  moment  nonplussed,  and  knew  not  what 
to  reply.  The  Speaker  came  to  his  aid  by  calling 
up  a  member  of  Parliament  to  present  a  petition 
which  he  had  in  his  hand,  and  the  House  proceeded 
with  the  business  of  the  day. 

But  the  matter  could  hardly  be  allowed  to  rest 
thus.  The  excitement  in  the  lobbies  was  great. 
Members  gathered  in  little  groups  discussing  Pitt's 
words,  and  wondering  what  answer  he  would  make 
to  Sheridan's  defiance.  Meanwhile,  Pitt  had  a 
hasty  consultation  with  his  colleagues.  It  was  re- 
cognised that  his  threat  had  failed  to  produce  the 
desired  effect,  and  that  he  had  unwittingly  given 
advantage  to  his  opponents.  Later  in  the  evening, 
therefore,  the  Prime  Minister  reopened  the  question, 
this  time  with  a  speech  that  was  painfully  like  an 
equivocation. 

Mr.   Pitt  said :    "  He   wished    to    remove    the 


184  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

possibility  of  misinterpretation,  especially  as  the 
hon.  gentleman  (Mr.  Sheridan]  had  stated  that  the 
insinuations  which  had  been  thrown  out  made  it  im- 
possible for  the  friends  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to 
withdraw  their  motion.  The  particulars  to  which 
he  alluded,  and  which  he  should  think  it  necessary 
to  state  more  fully  to  the  House,  related  only  to  the 
pecuniary  embarrassments  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
and  to  a  correspondence  that  had  taken  place  on 
the  subject,  and  this  had  no  reference  to  any 
extraneous  circumstances" 

But  Sheridan  had  no  intention  of  letting  him  off 
so  easily.  He  rubbed  in  Pitt's  disavowal. 

Mr.  Sheridan  said  :  "He  was  extremely  glad 
the  right  hon.  gentleman  had  explained  himself,  be- 
cause, undoubtedly,  as  he  left  the  matter,  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  right  hon.  gentleman's  declaration  had 
been  the  very  construction  which  he  had  now  so 
fully  cleared  himself  from  having  had  any  intention 
to  convey.  As  to  that  matter,  any  sort  of  allusion 
to  it  would  have  been  in  the  extremest  degree 
indelicate  and  disrespectful." 

Sheridan  went  that  same  night  to  Carlton  House 
and  told  the  Prince  what  had  passed.  The  Prince 
was  greatly  perturbed,  and  his  perturbation  only 
slightly  lessened  when  the  next  morning  Pitt  sent 
for  Lord  Southampton,  repeated  to  him  his  recanta- 
tion in  the  House  the  previous  day,  and  asked  him, 
in  effect,  to  explain  to  the  Prince  that  he  had  not 
meant  what  he  said.  The  Prince  adroitly  seized 
the  advantage,  and  returned  to  Pitt  a  haughty 
answer,  "that  he  never  received  verbal  messages 
except  from  the  King."  But  though  Pitt  might 


DENIAL   OF   THE   MARRIAGE         185 

be  muzzled,  there  remained  Rolle  to  be  reckoned 
with,  and  he  was  determined  to  bring  the  matter  of 
the  Prince's  reputed  marriage  to  a  Roman  Catholic 
before  the  notice  of  the  House  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity. Behind  Rolle  were  the  country  gentlemen, 
and  behind  them  again  was  the  Protestant  feeling 
of  the  country.  The  Prince  could  not  hope  to  stand 
up  against  the  storm.  Deserted  as  he  was  by  many 
of  his  political  friends,  with  the  King  against  him, 
and  the  Government  avowedly  hostile,  he  thought 
that  to  avow  his  marriage  to  a  Roman  Catholic 
at  this  juncture  would  be  to  imperil  his  succession 
to  the  Crown.  The  Prince  was  not  prepared  to 
make  such  a  sacrifice.  Yet  after  the  pointed  allusions 
made  to  the  secret  marriage  in  the  House,  it  was 
not  possible  to  fight  the  question  any  fonger  with 
gloves.  It  would  have  to  be  met  with  either  avowal 
or  disavowal.  The  Prince,  as  usual,  sought  refuge 
in  sophistry.  The  marriage  was  not  legal.  There- 
fore it  was  no  marriage  ;  for  him  it  did  not  exist, 
since  it  left  him  free.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  he  knew, 
would  never  betray  him,  whatever  happened ;  the 
clergyman  and  the  witnesses  could  be  trusted  to 
keep  their  own  counsel,  for  over  them  hung  the 
mysterious  threat  of  premunire  and  its  penalties. 
The  marriage  could  be  safely  denied ;  therefore,  he 
argued,  he  was  free  to  deny  it. 

Yet  when  the  Prince  thought  of  his  wife,  whom 
he  loved  more  than  any  other  being  in  the  world, 
some  remorse  seems  to  have  crossed  his  mind. 
Sheridan,  who  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  them  both, 
was  sent  to  sound  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  on  the  subject, 
and  to  prepare  her  for  the  worst.  She  did  not 


1 86  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

know  of  the  letter  the  Prince  had  written  to  Fox 
before  the  marriage,  nor  probably  did  Sheridan. 
Neither  had  Sheridan  the  courage  to  tell  her  de- 
finitely that  the  marriage  would  be  denied,  but  he 
said  that  it  was  probable  that  some  explanation 
would  be  required  by  Parliament  of  her  connection 
with  the  Prince ;  and  he  impressed  upon  her  the 
extreme  difficulty  of  the  Prince's  position  in  the 
matter,  and  the  necessity  of  secrecy.  It  was  easy 
to  work  upon  her  fears,  for  the  perils  of  the  Prince's 
situation,  and  the  dread  of  Protestant  prejudice, 
were  ever  present  with  her.  The  unhappy  lady 
seems  to  have  realised  her  danger,  for  she  told 
Sheridan  that  "  they  knew  she  was  like  a  dog  with 
a  log  tied  round  its  neck,  and  they  must  protect 
her."1  Sheridan,  of  course,  was  ready  to  promise 
anything  and  everything  to  calm  her,  but  he  left 
her  with  a  presentiment  of  evil  to  come.  Her  fears 
were  not  unfounded.  This  time  the  Prince  had 
fully  made  up  his  mind  that  the  marriage  must  be 
treated  as  non-existent,  and  if  the  question  were 
raised  in  Parliament,  his  friends  must  be  prepared 
to  meet  it  with  denial. 

Fox,  for  one,  was  determined  that  the  denial 
should  not  lack  completeness.  More  than  any 
one  else,  his  popularity  had  suffered.  Without  a 
shadow  of  truth  he  had  been  accused  of  conniving 
at  the  Prince's  secret  marriage  with  a  Roman 
Catholic.  Everything  which  unscrupulous  opponents 
could  do  to  convey  this  impression  to  the  people 
had  been  done  ;  paragraphs  in  the  press  had  accused 
him  of  being  privy  to  the  marriage,  and  caricatures 
1  Langdale,  op.  cit. 


DENIAL  OF  THE   MARRIAGE         187 

and  cartoons  innumerable  had  depicted  him  as 
assisting  at  a  ceremony  of  which  he  knew  nothing, 
and  against  which  he  had  protested  in  vain.  These 
accusations  had  been  going  on  for  nearly  a  year,  and 
he  determined  to  answer  them  once  for  all.  He 
had  the  Prince's  letter,  and  that  was  enough  for  his 
purpose.  Whether  the  marriage  had  taken  place 
or  not  was  beside  the  point.  It  had  been  denied 
to  him  by  the  Prince  in  writing,  and  he  did  not  seek 
to  go  behind  that  denial.  Moreover,  he  did  not 
feel  in  any  way  called  upon  to  shield  Mrs.  Fitzher- 
bert  from  the  consequences  of  her  folly.  Fox  was 
always  loyal  to  his  friends,  perhaps  too  loyal ;  but 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  not  his  friend.  They  had 
nothing  in  common — he  did  not  understand  her  or 
sympathise  with  her,  and  she,  though  she  was 
discretion  itself,  had  an  instinctive  dislike  of  him. 
His  blasphemies  shocked  her,  his  loose  morals 
revolted  her,  and  his  excessive  drinking  and 
gambling  disgusted  her.  She  feared  that  in  these 
matters  he  had  a  bad  influence  over  the  Prince. 
Perhaps,  too,  Fox  was  a  little  jealous  of  her.  Since 
the  Prince's  connection  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  the 
frank  comradeship  between  him  and  his  "  dear 
Charles"  had  gone,  and  though  the  Prince  de- 
clared himself  as  devoted  as  ever  to  his  friend,  the 
old  intimacy  had  ceased.  Fox  would  have  been 
less  than  human  if  he  had  not  attributed  some  of 
this  falling  off  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  In  a  crisis  like 
the  present,  therefore,  he  conceived  that  his  duty 
was  only  to  the  Prince ;  he  owed  no  consideration 
to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  With  these  thoughts  in  his 
mind  he  resolved  to  act.  To  say  this  is  not  to 


1 88  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

place  Fox  altogether  in  the  wrong,  for  he  had 
authority  for  what  he  stated.  But  it  shows  that 
in  what  followed  the  Prince  was  not  wholly  to 
blame. 

It  was  announced  that  Alderman  Newnham  was 
to  bring  forward  his  motion  on  April  30.  On  that 
day  the  House  of  Commons  was  crowded,  and 
everywhere  within  its  precincts  there  reigned  an  air 
of  subdued  excitement.  Fox  was  in  his  place,  forti- 
fied doubtless  for  the  coming  fray  by  an  extra  bottle 
of  port,  and  the  Prince's  friends,  such  as  Sheridan, 
Grey,  and  others,  were  gathered  around  him. 
When  the  Alderman  rose  to  propose  his  motion, 
his  opening  words  showed  that  the  Prince's  friends 
meant  to  present  a  bold  front. 

Alderman  Newnham  said :  "  On  Friday  last, 
much  personal  application  had  been  made  to  him 
from  various  quarters  of  the  House  to  press  him  to 
forego  his  purpose,  and  much  had  been  said  of  the 
dangerous  consequences  which  might  result  from 
the  discussion  of  such  a  subject.  One  gentleman 
had  gone  so  far  as  to  contend  that  it  would  draw 
on  questions  affecting  Church  and  State.  That  ex- 
pression, coupled  with  certain  hints  which  fell  from 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  (Mr.  Pitt),  had 
induced  him,  as  well  as  other  members,  to  suspect 
that  in  order  to  deter  him  from  persisting  in 
bringing  forward  this  motion,  matters  of  singular 
delicacy  were  to  be  agitated  without  reserve.  The 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  had  indeed  explained 
his  meaning  in  a  way  satisfactory  to  the  House, 
and  in  his  opinion,  the  gentleman  who  had  made 
use  of  the  expressions  relative  to  Church  and  State 


CHARLES  JAMES   FOX 


DENIAL   OF  THE   MARRIAGE         189 

was  bound  as  a  man  of  honour  to  come  to  an  open 
explanation  of  what  he  meant  by  the  allusion." 

Mr.  Fox  rose  immediately  after  Mr.  Newnham 
had  concluded  his  remarks.  He  began  with  an 
apology  for  his  absence  on  the  previous  occasion : 
"  Not  having  heard  that  a  subject  of  so  much 
delicacy  and  importance  was  likely  to  be  at  all 
alluded  to  on  Friday  last,  he  had  not  come  down  to 
the  House  on  that  day.  On  a  former  occasion  he 
had  heard  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  throw 
out  certain  hints  which  appeared  to  his  mind 
extremely  like  a  menace,  and  that  of  a  very  extra- 
ordinary nature,  but  those  hints  had,  he  understood, 
on  Friday  last  been  much  narrowed  by  explanation, 
and  confined  to  certain  correspondence  and  letters 
which  had  passed  on  the  subject  without  doors.  .  .  . 
He  desired  it  to  be  understood,  not  as  speaking 
lightly  but  as  speaking  from  the  immediate  autho- 
rity of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  when  he  assured  the 
Houset  hat  there  was  no  part  of  his  Royal  High- 
ness' conduct  that  he  was  either  afraid  or  unwilling 
to  have  investigated  in  the  most  minute  manner. 
With  regard  to  the  private  correspondence  alluded 
to,  he  wished  to  have  it  laid  before  the  House,  be- 
cause it  would  prove  that  the  conduct  of  his  Royal 
Highness  had  been  in  the  highest  degree  amiable, 
and  would  present  an  uniform  and  a  perfect  picture 
of  duty  and  obedience,  so  much  so  as  ever,  in  any 
instance,  had  been  shown  from  a  son  to  his  father, 
or  from  a  subject  to  his  Sovereign*  With  regard 
to  the  debt,  which  was  the  cause  of  his  embarrass- 
ments, his  Royal  Highness,  if  the  House  would 
deem  it  necessary,  was  willing  to  give  an  account  in 


190  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

writing  of  every  part  of  it — not  of  every  single  sum, 
or  even  of  every  thousand  pounds,  for  such  an 
account  the  good  sense  of  the  House  would  see  to 
be  improper,  if  not  impossible — but  a  general  and 
fair  account.  He  had  not  the  smallest  objection  to 
afford  the  House  every  possible  satisfaction,  and 
there  was  not  a  circumstance  of  his  Royal  High- 
ness's  life  which  he  was  ashamed  to  have  known." 

So  far  Fox  had  only  spoken  in  generalities.  Now, 
for  a  moment,  he  paused,  and  then  raising  his  voice, 
but  speaking  slowly  and  with  a  deliberation  which 
compelled  the  attention  of  the  House,  he  con- 
tinued : — 

"  With  respect  to  the  allusion  to  something  full 
of  '  danger  to  the  Church  and  State '  made  by  the 
hon.  gentleman,  one  of  the  members  for  the  county 
of  Devon,  till  that  gentleman  thought  proper  to  ex- 
plain himself,  it  was  impossible  to  say  with  any 
certainty  to  what  that  allusion  referred ;  but  he  sup- 
posed it  must  be  meant  in  reference  to  that  mise- 
rable calumny,  that  low  malicious  falsehood,  which 
had  been  propagated  without  doors,  and  made 
the  wanton  sport  of  the  vulgar.  In  that  House, 
where  it  was  known  how  frequent  and  common 
the  falsehoods  of  the  time  were,  he  hoped  a  tale 
only  fit  to  impose  upon  the  lowest  order  of 
persons  in  the  streets  would  not  have  gained 
the  smallest  portion  of  credit;  but  when  it  appeared 
that  an  invention  so  monstrous,  a  report  of  a  fact 
which  had  not  the  smallest  degree  of  foundation, 
a  report  of  a  fact  actually  impossible  to  have  hap- 
pened, had  been  circulated  with  so  much  industry 
as  to  have  made  an  impression  on  the  minds  of 


DENIAL  OF  THE   MARRIAGE         191 

members  of  that  House,  it  proved  at  once  the  un- 
common pains  taken  by  the  enemies  of  his  Royal 
Highness  to  propagate  the  grossest  and  most  malig- 
nant falsehoods  with  a  view  to  depreciate  his  char- 
acter and  injure  him  in  the  opinion  of  his  country. 
When  he  (Mr.  Fox]  considered  that  his  Royal 
Highness  was  the  first  subject  in  the  kingdom  and 
the  immediate  heir  to  the  throne,  he  was  at  a  loss  to 
imagine  what  species  of  party  it  was  which  could 
have  fabricated  so  base  and  scandalous  a  calumny. 
Had  there  existed  in  the  kingdom  such  a  faction  as 
an  anti-Brunswick  faction,  to  that  faction  he  should 
have  certainly  imputed  the  invention  of  so  malicious 
a  falsehood,  for  he  knew  not  what  other  description 
of  men  could  feel  an  interest  in  first  forming,  and 
then  circulating  with  more  than  ordinary  assiduity,  a 
tale  in  every  particular  so  unfounded,  and  for  which 
there  was  not  the  shadow  of  anything  like  reality. 

"  This  being  the  fact,  and  as  the  occasion  had 
made  it  necessary  for  him  to  declare  as  much,  he 
hoped  it  would  have  this  good  effect  upon  the 
House  and  upon  the  country,  that  it  would  teach 
both  the  one  and  the  other  to  distrust  the  reports 
circulated  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Prince,  and  lessen 
any  opinion  that  they  might  in  consequence  take  up 
injurious  to  the  character  of  his  Royal  Highness, 
who  might  be  said  to  be  a  person  in  whose  fair 
fame  that  House  and  the  country  were  deeply 
interested.  The  whole  of  the  debt  the  Prince  was 
ready  to  submit  to  the  investigation  of  the  House ; 
and  he  was  equally  ready  to  submit  the  other 
circumstance  to  which  he  had  alluded  to  their  con- 
sideration, provided  the  consideration  of  a  House 


1 92.  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

of  Parliament  could,  with  consistency,  with  propriety 
and  decency,  be  applied  to  such  a  subject.  Nay, 
his  Royal  Highness  had  authorised  him  to  declare 
that,  as  a  peer  of  Parliament,  he  was  ready  in  the 
other  House  to  submit  to  any,  the  most  pointed 
questions,  which  could  be  put  to  him  respecting  it, 
or  to  afford  his  Majesty  or  his  Majesty's  Ministers 
the  fullest  assurances  of  the  utter  falsehood  of  the 
fact  in  question,  which  never  had,  and  common 
sense  must  see,  never  could  have  happened." 

Half  the  House  had  listened  to  Fox's  remarks 
with  incredulity,  the  other  with  a  sense  of  relief. 
When  he  sat  down  a  buzz  of  eager  comment  broke 
forth,  which  was  hushed  as  Pitt  rose.  The  great 
Minister  was  more  than  usually  cold,  frigid,  and 
contemptuous  ;  his  calmness  contrasting  markedly 
with  the  impassioned  demeanour  of  Fox. 

Mr.  Pitt  said  :  "  He  should  not  at  present  enter 
into  a  debate  upon  the  question."  He  rebuked  Mr. 
Fox  for  his  "  hints  and  insinuations  against  a  person 
unnamed  (the  King).  As  the  right  hon.  gentle- 
man did  not  choose  to  point  his  own  charge  against 
any  individual,  he  should  not  point  it  for  him."  Of 
Rolle  he  said  that  he,  "  with  the  zeal  that  became 
a  good  subject,  interposed,  in  common  with  many 
other  respectable  members,  with  his  entreaties  to 
the  hon.  magistrate,  not  to  force  the  House  to  the 
discussion  of  a  subject  which  was  of  all  others  to  be 
most  avoided,  and  which  he  looked  upon  himself  as 
bound  in  duty  to  the  public,  to  the  Prince,  and  to 
the  Sovereign,  to  prevent  if  possible." 

It  will  be  seen  that  Pitt  made  no  allusion  to 
Fox's  denial  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  marriage  to  the 


DENIAL   OF  THE   MARRIAGE         193 

Prince,  and  his  silence  on  this  point  was  significant. 
The  House  would  willingly  have  let  the  matter 
drop,  but  Rolle  was  determined  to  probe  the  subject 
to  the  bottom.  He  was  not  in  the  least  convinced 
by  Fox's  words,  and  he  suspected  sophistry  and 
equivocation. 

Mr.  Rolle  said :  "  After  the  pointed  manner  in 
which  he  had  been  alluded  to  it  was  necessary  to 
say  a  few  words.  .  .  .  The  right  hon.  gentleman 
had  touched  upon  the  very  matter  to  which  he  had 
alluded,  when  he,  on  Friday  last,  called  on  the 
country  gentlemen  to  attend  to  a  question  which 
would  affect  both  Church  and  State.  That  matter 
had  been  stated  and  discussed  in  newspapers  all 
over  the  kingdom,  and  it  had  made  an  impression 
upon  him,  and  upon  almost  all  ranks  of  men  in  the 
country  who  loved  and  venerated  the  Constitution. 
The  right  hon.  gentleman  had  said  it  was  impossible 
to  have  happened.  They  all  knew  that  there  were 
certain  laws  and  Acts  of  Parliament  which  forbade 
it ;  but  though  it  could  not  be  done  under  the 
formal  sanction  of  the  law,  there  were  ways  in  which 
it  might  have  taken  place,  and  those  laws  in  the 
minds  of  some  persons  might  have  been  satis- 
factorily evaded,  and  yet  the  fact  might  be  equally 
productive  of  the  most  alarming  consequences.  It 
ought  therefore  to  be  cleared  up." 

Rolle  had  not  calculated  the  full  extent  of  Fox's 
audacity. 

Mr.  Fox  immediately  rose  and  replied :  "  That 
he  did  not  deny  the  calumny  in  question  merely 
with  regard  to  the  effect  of  certain  existing  laws, 
but  he  denied  it  in  toto,  in  point  of  fact  as  well 

VOL.  i.  N 


194  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

as  law.  The  fact  not  only  never  could  have 
happened  legally,  but  never  did  happen  in  any  way 
whatsoever,  and  had  from  the  beginning  been  a  base 
and  malicious  falsehood." 

Mr.  Rolle  then  asked :  "  Whether  in  what  had 
fallen  from  the  right  hon.  gentleman  he  had  spoken 
from  direct  authority." 

Mr.  Fox  declared  that  "he  had  spoken  from 
direct  authority." 

Against  a  denial  so  sweeping  there  could  be  no 
appeal.  At  least,  so  it  seemed  to  another  inde- 
pendent member,  Sir  Edward  Astley,  who  said  :  "  It 
gave  him  great  pleasure  to  hear  from  such  high 
authority  direct  contradiction  of  a  report  which  had 
been  so  freely  circulated  in  newspapers,  and  made 
the  subject  of  an  infinite  number  of  prints,  that  it 
had  affected  a  very  great  and  general  impression  on 
the  public." 

But  Rolle  sat  silent  and  unbelieving.  The 
matter  might  have  dropped  there  had  not  Sheridan, 
who  perhaps  feared  that  Rolle  would  raise  the  sub- 
ject again,  tried  to  wring  from  him  an  admission 
that  he  was  satisfied. 

Mr.  Sheridan  said  that :  "  It  would  be  extremely 
unhandsome  in  the  hon.  gentleman  (Mr.  Rolle),  who 
had  called  upon  his  right  hon.  friend  (Mr.  Fox)  to 
say  whether  he  spoke  from  direct  authority  or  not, 
to  sit  silent  after  having  received  so  explicit  an 
answer." 

Rolle's  answer  showed  how  little  he  believed  Fox. 

Mr.  Rolle  replied  :  "  That  nothing  the  hon.  gentle- 
man (Sheridan)  could  say  would  induce  him  to  act 
otherwise  than  to  his  judgment  should  appear  to 


DENIAL  OF   THE   MARRIAGE         195 

be  proper.  The  right  hon.  gentleman  had  certainly 
answered  him,  and  the  House  would  judge  for 
themselves  of  the  propriety  of  the  answer." 

Mr.  Sheridan  observed  that :  "  The  hon.  gentle- 
man after  having  put  a  pointed  question  and  received 
an  immediate  answer,  was  bound  in  honour  and  fair- 
ness either  to  declare  that  he  was  satisfied,  or  to  take 
some  means  of  putting  the  matter  into  such  a  state 
of  inquiry  as  would  satisfy  him.  To  remain  silent, 
or  to  declare  that  the  House  would  judge  for  them- 
selves after  what  had  passed,  was  neither  manly  nor 
candid.  If,  therefore,  the  hon.  gentleman  did  not 
choose  to  say  that  he  was  satisfied,  the  House 
ought  to  come  to  a  resolution  that  it  was  seditious 
and  disloyal  to  propagate  reports  injurious  to  the 
character  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  thus  by 
authority  discountenance  the  reports." 

Mr.  Rolle  maintained  his  attitude.  He  said 
that  "he  had  not  invented  these  reports,  but  merely 
said  that  he  had  heard  them,  and  that  they  had 
made  an  impression  on  his  mind." 

Mr.  Pitt  then  felt  forced  to  intervene  on  behalf 
of  his  supporter.  He  observed  that  "he  had 
never  heard  so  direct  an  attack  upon  the  freedom 
of  debate  and  liberty  of  speech  in  that  House 
ever  since  he  had  sat  in  Parliament.  .  .  .  The  hon. 
gentleman  (Mr. Sheridan),  who  took  so  warm  a  part 
in  the  business  on  the  other  side  of  the  House, 
should  rather  be  obliged  to  the  hon.  member  (Mr. 
Rolle)  who  was  the  first  to  suggest  a  question  which 
had  been  the  means  of  bringing  forward  so  explicit 
a  declaration  on  so  interesting  a  subject,  and  one 
which  must  give  complete  satisfaction  not  only 


196  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

to  the  hon.  gentleman  himself  but  to  the  whole 
House." 

Still  Sheridan  persevered.  Perhaps  he  wanted 
to  know  exactly  how  much  Rolle  knew  on  the  subject. 

Mr.  Sheridan  "  denied  that  he  wished  to  infringe 
on  the  liberty  of  debate,  and  he  would  appeal  to  the 
House  whether  under  such  circumstances  it  was 
honourable  and  manly,  fair  or  candid,  for  the  hon. 
gentleman  (Mr.  Rolle)  to  remain  silent,  and  whether 
he  ought  not  either  to  declare  that  he  was  satisfied, 
or  to  resort  to  means  of  ascertaining  the  facts ;  for 
it  was  adding  in  a  tenfold  degree  to  the  malicious 
falsehood  which  had  been  propagated  against  his 
Royal  Highness,  to  say  that  the  Prince  had  autho- 
rised a  false  denial  of  the  fact.  The  right  hon. 
gentleman  (Mr.  Pitt)  had  himself  been  obliged  to 
assume  that  '  the  hon.  member  must  be  satisfied 
since  he  had  never  acknowledged  that  he  was  so.' " 
All,  however,  Sheridan  could  wring  from  Rolle  was 
a  curt  answer  that  "  the  hon.  gentleman  had  not 
heard  him  say  that  he  was  not  satisfied." 

Mr.  Grey  then  broke  in  to  the  debate.  He  sup- 
ported Mr.  Sheridan,  and  denounced  the  conduct  of 
Rolle  to  be  "  both  unmanly  and  ungenerous.  If  that 
hon.  gentleman  had  not  received  complete  satisfac- 
tion, the  House,  he  believed,  had."  Grey  next 
attacked  Pitt  for  his  conduct  of  this  business,  and 
for  "  the  veiled  hints  and  menaces  he  had  thrown 
out  last  week." 

Mr.  Pitt  in  the  most  positive  manner  again  "  dis- 
claimed any  idea  or  intention  of  threat  or  menace — 
he  deprecated  discussion  of  questions  of  so  delicate 
a  nature,  and  asked  every  gentleman,  to  whom  the 


DENIAL   OF   THE   MARRIAGE         197 

harmony  and  happiness  of  the  kingdom  was  dear, 
to  join  with  him  in  so  deprecating." 

At  this  point  the  subject  dropped,  and  the  House 
adjourned.1 

Thus  was  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  forsworn,  and  the 
wrong  done  to  her  then  was  never  set  right  in 
her  lifetime. 

1  "Parliamentary  History."     Hansard,  London,  1816,  vol.  xxvi. 


CHAPTER   XI 
SHERIDAN'S  APOLOGY 

(1787) 

WHO  was  responsible  for  Fox's  denial  in  the  House 
of  Commons  of  the  marriage  between  the  Prince  of 
Wales  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert?  The  question  even 
now  is  one  of  considerable  difficulty.  Fox's  apolo- 
gists declare  that  he  must  have  believed  what  he 
said  to  be  true,  as  he  was  incapable  of  uttering  a 
falsehood.  The  detractors  of  the  Prince  of  Wales 
aver  that  he  was  wholly  to  blame ;  in  their  opinion 
the  Prince's  perfidy  was  double-dyed,  for  he  not 
only  lied  to  his  friend,  but  betrayed  the  wife  of  his 
bosom.  The  truth  will  probably  be  found  to  lie  be- 
tween these* two  extremes.  Both  Fox  and  the  Prince 
were  in  a  sense  responsible.  There  is  little  doubt 
that  when  Fox  declared  that  he  spoke  "  with  direct 
authority  "  he  alluded  to  the  letter  which  the  Prince 
wrote  to  him  four  days  before  his  marriage.  The 
Prince  in  his  answer  to  Fox  said :  "  Believe  me, 
the  world  will  soon  be  convinced  that  there  not  only 
is  [not]  but  never  was,  any  ground  for  these  reports 
which  of  late  have  been  so  malevolently  circulated." l 
Fox,  in  his  speech,  spoke  of  "malicious  falsehoods  " 
and  "malignant  calumnies,"  thus  using  much  the 
same  words  as  the  Prince  had  used  in  his  letter. 

1    Letter  from  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Mr.  Fox,  December  u,  1785. 

108 


SHERIDAN'S   APOLOGY  199 

It  has  been  suggested  that  Fox  was  ignorant 
of  the  ceremony  of  December  15,  1785  ;  but  that  he 
had,  through  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire,  heard  of 
the  scene  at  Carlton  House  in  the  autumn  of  1784, 
when  the  Prince  put  a  ring  on  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
finger  and  made  her  promise  to  become  his  wife, 
and  he  had  that  in  his  mind  when  he  denied  the 
marriage  "in  tolo,  in  point  of  fact  as  well  as  law." 
But  even  the  Carlton  House  scene  constituted  "  a 
sort  of  ceremony,"  and  Fox  had  most  positively 
declared  the  marriage  "never  did  happen  in  any 
way  whatsoever."  Perhaps  he  thought  that  while 
he  was  about  this  business  he  had  better  do  it 
thoroughly,  and  leave  no  possible  pretext  for  the 
question  to  be  raised  again.  For  the  moment  he 
succeeded,  for  no  one  thought  that  the  charge  would 
be  met  with  so  sweeping  a  denial. 

Fox's  triumph  was  short-lived.  When  he  left  the 
House  of  Commons  that  same  evening  he  strolled 
up  to  Brooks's  Club,  and  there  he  met,  it  is  said, 
Orlando  Bridgeman  (afterwards  Lord  Bradford),  who 
accosted  him  with  these  words  :  "  Mr.  Fox,  I  hear  that 
you  have  denied  in  the  House  the  Prince's  marriage 
to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  You  have  been  misinformed  ; 
I  was  at  the  marriage." 1  How  Fox  met  this  it  is 
impossible  to  say.  Some  have  represented  him  as 
giving  way  to  a  violent  outburst  of  indignation  at 
the  duplicity  practised  upon  him,  and  have  declared 
that  he  broke  off  his  friendship  with  the  Prince  in 
consequence,  and  did  not  speak  to  him  for  a  year. 
Unfortunately  the  facts  do  not  bear  out  this  theory. 
Fox  still  continued  to  correspond  with  the  Prince. 

i  If  he  were  present  it  was  outside  the  door. 


200  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

As  late  as  May  10  (ten  days  after  the  scene  in  the 
House  of  Commons)  we  find  affectionate  letters 
passing  between  them  on  the  subject  of  the  Prince's 
debts.  If  Fox  had  been  so  virtuously  indignant  as 
his  admirers  represent  him  to  have  been,  he  would 
certainly  have  thrown  up  the  whole  affair,  and  let  the 
Prince  get  his  debts  paid  as  best  he  could.  But  Fox 
knew  too  well  the  unstable  character  of  his  royal 
friend  to  have  been  greatly  surprised  at  this  revela- 
tion of  his  shiftiness.  He  may  have  felt  indignant 
at  the  trick  played  on  him,  but  his  indignation  was 
probably  seasoned  with  a  cynical  amusement.  The 
Prince's  letter  denying  his  marriage,  though  it  was 
written  before  the  marriage  took  place,  had  served 
Fox's  purpose  ;  it  had  enabled  him  to  publicly  deny 
the  fact  from  "  direct  authority "  ;  it  had  served  to 
clear  him  and  the  Whig  leaders  from  the  suspicion 
of  having  been  privy  to  it,  and  it  had  greatly  relieved 
the  minds  of  his  followers  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
whose  allegiance  had  been  sorely  strained.  Sir 
Gilbert  Elliot,  for  instance,  writes  that  he  had  been 
much  distressed  by  "the  constitutional  dangers  and 
doubts  belonging  to  this  most  equivocal  condition 
of  things"  ;  he  thought  the  Prince  had  committed  a 
"  heavy  offence,"  all  too  serious  to  be  excused  "  by 
levity  or  the  passions  of  youth."  He  rejoiced,  there- 
fore, to  hear  the  charge  denied  so  definitely.  "  Fox," 
he  says,  "declared  by  authority  from  the  Prince,  in  the 
fullest  and  most  unequivocal  manner,  that  there  was 
not  the  smallest  foundation  of  any  sort  for  the  story 
of  the  marriage  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  .  .  .  and  in 
a  word  denied,  positively  from  the  Prince  himself, 
the  whole  of  this  slander  in  words  so  strong  and  so 


SHERIDAN'S  APOLOGY  201 

unqualified  that  we  must  believe  him.  ...  I  think 
yesterday  was  a  very  good  day  for  the  Prince,  as 
the  story  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  what  staggered 
great  numbers.  .  .  ."  He  adds:  "This  conversation 
leaves  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  in  an  awkward  way ;  but 
for  my  own  part  I  feel  much  better  satisfied  with 
her  conduct  now  than  I  did  before  " l — surely  a  dark 
saying.  Fox  was  too  astute  a  politician  not  to  be 
aware  of  the  ad  vantage  he  had  gained  for  himself  and 
his  party  by  his  uncompromising  denial.  Nothing 
could  be  further  from  his  thoughts  than  to  sacrifice 
the  effect  of  his  words  by  any  consideration  for  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert.  The  burden  of  the  falsehood  did  not 
rest  on  his  shoulders,  but  on  those  of  the  Prince. 

The  Prince  found  the  burden  heavy  enough. 
During  the  progress  of  the  debate  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  eventful  evening  of  April  30,  the 
Prince  was  kept  informed  of  all  that  passed.  Mes- 
sengers were  continually  going  to  and  fro  between 
Carlton  House  and  Westminster.  Immediately  the 
debate  was  over,  Sheridan  and  Grey  went  to  see 
him.  They  must  have  told  him  of  Fox's  denial  of 
the  marriage,  though  they  probably  did  not  tell  him 
of  the  strong  words  which  Fox  had  used.  The 
Prince  seems  to  have  acquiesced  without  protest ;  he 
was  glad  that  the  danger  was  over.  We  find  him 
writing  to  Fox  at  twelve  o'clock  the  same  evening, 
making  an  appointment  to  see  him  next  morning. 

"April  30,  1787, 
Monday  night,  12  o'clock, 

"  MY  DEAR  CHARLES, — I  beg  to  see  you  for  five 
minutes  to-morrow  after  I  have  seen  Marsham  and 

1  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,"  op.  cit. 


202  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Powys,  whom  I  beg  you  will  desire  to  be  at  Carlton 
House  at  one  o'clock  to-morrow.  When  I  see 
you  I  will  relate  to  you  what  has  passed  between 
my  Friend  and  me  relative  to  ye  seeing  you.  I 
feel  more  comfortable  by  Sheridan  and  Grey's 
account  of  what  has  passed  to-day.  I  have  had  a 
distant  insinuation  that  some  sort  of  message,  or 
terms,  are  to  be  proposed  to  me  to-morrow.  If 
you  come  a  little  after  two  you  will  be  sure  to  find 
me. — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

"  GEORGE  P." 

From  this  letter  it  would  seem  that  the  Prince 
took,  or  affected  to  take,  the  matter  lightly.  The 
thought  uppermost  was  not  the  betrayal  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  but  the  payment  of  his  debts.  All  the 
same,  the  Prince  was  not  easy  in  his  mind  as  to 
how  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  would  take  the  news,  and  he 
certainly  did  a  wise  thing  in  telling  her  of  it  himself 
at  the  earliest  opportunity.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had 
then  no  town-house,  and  was  staying  "  with  her 
friend  and  relative  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Butler."  "  The 
Prince,"  we  are  told,  "called  the  morning  after  the 
denial  of  the  marriage  in  the  House  of  Commons 
by  Mr.  Fox.  He  went  up  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and 
taking  hold  of  both  her  hands  and  caressing  her, 
said, '  Only  conceive,  Maria,  what  Fox  did  yesterday. 
He  went  down  to  the  House  and  denied  that  you 
and  I  were  man  and  wife !  Did  you  ever  hear  of 
such  a  thing  ? '  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  made  no  reply, 
but  changed  countenance  and  turned  pale."1  She 
knew  instinctively  that  her  fate  was  sealed,  and  what 

1  Langdale,  op.  tit. 


SHERIDAN'S   APOLOGY  203 

this  public  repudiation  meant  to  her.  Her  silence 
doubtless  moved  the  Prince  more  than  any  words. 
Tears  were  always  ready  to  spring  to  his  eyes  and 
vows  and  protestations  to  his  lips.  He  proceeded 
to  disavow  Fox  to  her  and  all  his  works. 

The  denial  of  the  marriage  was  serious  enough  in 
itself,  but  when,  later  in  the  day,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
became  aware  of  the  terms  in  which  Fox  had  made 
that  denial,  and  how  he  had  left  her  no  loophole  to 
escape  from  a  shameful  situation,  compromising 
alike  her  religion  and  her  honour,  her  indignation 
and  reproaches  knew  no  bounds.  She  saw  herself 
not  only  cruelly  betrayed,  but  publicly  degraded. 
"This  public  degradation  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert," 
says  Lord  Stourton,  "so  compromised  her  char- 
acter and  religion,  and  irritated  her  feelings,  that 
she  determined  to  break  off  all  connection  with  the 
Prince,  and  she  was  only  induced  to  receive  him 
again  into  her  confidence,  by  repeated  assurances 
that  Mr.  Fox  had  never  been  authorised  to  make 
the  declaration  ;  and  the  friends  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
assured  her,  that,  in  this  discrepancy  as  to  the 
assertion  of  Mr.  Fox  and  the  Prince,  she  was  bound 
to  accept  the  word  of  her  husband." l 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  dislike  of  Fox  now  deepened 

1  "  I  told  her,"  adds  Lord  Stourton,  "  that  I  understood  there  was  a 
scrap  of  paper  from  the  Prince  to  Mr.  Fox ;  that  Sir  John  Throck- 
morton,  a  friend  of  his,  had  assured  me  of  the  fact  of  the  Prince's 
wishing  much  to  obtain  possession  of  it  ;  but  though  written  on  a 
dirty  scrap  of  paper,  it  was  much  too  valuable  to  be  parted  with.  She 
said  that  she  rather  doubted  the  fact "  (Langdale's  "  Memoir,"  in 
which  is  incorporated  Lord  Stourton's  "  Narrative ").  This  scrap  of 
paper  was  probably  the  letter  which  the  Prince  had  written  to  Fox 
previous  to  his  marriage,  and  which  was  found  among  Fox's  papers 
after  his  death. 


204  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

into  abhorrence,  and  she  vowed  that  she  never 
could,  or  would,  forgive  him.  "She  said,"  writes 
Sir  Philip  Francis,  who  later  tried  to  make  peace 
between  them,  "  that,  by  his  unauthorised  declara- 
tion in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  had  rolled  her  in 
the  kennel  like  a  street-walker ;  that  he  knew  that 
every  word  he  said  was  a  lie  ;  and  so  on,  in  a  torrent 
of  virulence  which  it  was  vain  for  me  to  encounter, 
so  I  gave  up  the  point  and  made  my  retreat  as  well 
and  as  fast  as  I  could." l 

Nor  did  she  forgive  the  Prince  easily,  though  he 
swore  to  her  that  Fox  had  acted  entirely  without 
his  authority.  This  of  course  was  untrue,  but  it 
was  true  that  he  had  no  idea  that  Fox  would  use 
language  so  unnecessarily  strong.  When  the  Prince 
heard  it  he  was  greatly  annoyed,  and  was  eager  to 
make  all  possible  amends.  He  sent  for  Grey,  who 
found  the  Prince  tremendously  agitated,  and  pacing 
in  a  hurried  manner  up  and  down  the  room.  He  at 
once  explained  his  object  in  sending  for  Grey.  It 
was  to  induce  him  to  frame  some  sort  of  explana- 
tion for  Fox's  denial  of  his  marriage  the  previous 
evening — to  modify  in  some  way  the  terms  of  that 
denial,  so  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  might  be  pacified. 
"  Charles  certainly  went  too  far  last  night,"  he  said. 
"You,  my  dear  Grey,  shall  explain  it,"  and  then 
in  distinct  tones,2  though  with  prodigious  agitation, 
owned  that  a  ceremony  had  taken  place.  Grey 
observed  that  Fox  must  unquestionably  suppose  that 
he  had  authority  for  all  he  said ;  and  that  if  there 

1  "  Memoirs  of  Sir  Philip  Francis." 

2  "As  Grey,"  adds  Lord  Holland,  "has  since  the  Prince's  (George 
IV.'s)  death  assured  me." 


RICHARD   BRINSLEY   SHERIDAN 
(After  the  Painting  by  Sir  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS) 


SHERIDAN'S  APOLOGY  205 

had  been  any  mistake  it  could  only  be  rectified  by 
his  Royal  Highness  speaking  to  Fox  himself,  and 
setting  him  right  on  such  matters  as  had  been 
misunderstood  between  them.1  "  No  other  person 
can,"  he  added,  "be  employed  without  questioning 
Mr.  Fox's  veracity,  which  nobody,  I  presume,  is 
prepared  to  do."  But  to  discuss  the  matter  with 
Fox  was  the  last  thing  the  Prince  desired.  Grey 
probably  knew  this,  and  like  all  the  Prince's  friends 
he  was  delighted  at  the  public  denial  of  the  marriage, 
whether  it  were  true  or  untrue.  He  says,  "  I 
expressly  told  him  (the  Prince)  how  prejudicial  the 
continuance  of  the  discussion  must  be  to  him,  and 
positively  refused  to  do  what  he  wished."  This 
refusal  "chagrined,  disappointed,  and  agitated  the 
Prince  exceedingly."  He  terminated  the  interview 
abruptly  and  threw  himself  on  a  sofa,  muttering, 
"Well,  if  nobody  else  will,  Sheridan  must."  The 
Prince  never  forgave  Grey  for  his  refusal  and 
the  implied  rebuke,  and  nearly  half  a  century  later, 
when  Grey  was  the  powerful  Minister  and  the 
Prince  was  King,  there  still  existed  a  coolness 
between  them. 

The  Prince  sent  for  the  pliant  Sheridan,  who 
readily  promised  to  smooth  away  the  effect  of  Fox's 
words  as  soon  as  occasion  arose,  and  with  that 
promise  the  Prince  had  to  be  content.  To  Fox  he 
said  nothing.  Annoyed  though  he  was  with  him 
for  his  excess  of  zeal,  he  was  much  too  useful  to 
quarrel  with  at  such  a  crisis.  He  must  wait,  at 
any  rate,  until  Fox  had  secured  the  payment  of  his 
debts  by  Parliament. 

1  "  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party,"  by  Lord  Holland. 


206  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

This  matter  proceeded  apace.  Both  the  King 
and  Pitt  felt  that  the  bold  stand  taken  by  the  Prince 
and  his  friends  had  cut  the  ground  from  beneath 
their  feet.  The  Prince's  necessities  had  extorted 
from  him  a  complete  denial  of  the  marriage,  and 
the  King's  own  measure,  the  Royal  Marriage  Act, 
had  not  been  openly  set  at  defiance.  The  price 
had  been  paid.  What  mattered  it  that  its  pay- 
ment involved  the  sacrifice  of  a  woman's  honour? 
The  King  was  now  all  complacence.  Pitt  sent  a 
gracious  message  to  the  Prince  full  of  explanations 
and  apologies,  to  which  the  Prince  haughtily  replied 
in  much  the  same  terms  as  before,  "He  did  not 
receive  verbal  messages,  but  if  the  Minister  had 
any  business  with  him  he  might  come  himself." 
This  might  have  led  to  further  unpleasantness  had 
not  the  Duchess  of  Gordon  diplomatically  arranged 
matters.  Pitt  came  to  see  the  Prince  and  assured 
him  of  his  goodwill.  Compliments  passed  on  both 
sides,  and  then  Pitt  went  to  the  King.  A  Cabinet 
Council  was  held,  and  a  message  was  sent  to  the 
Prince,  that  his  wishes  would  be  complied  with. 

On  the  strength  of  this  assurance,  on  May  4, 
Alderman  Newnham  withdrew  his  motion  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  We  read  : * — 

"As  soon  as  Mr.  Pitt  came  into  the  House  a 
profound  silence  took  place,  although  there  were 
upwards  of  four  hundred  members  assembled.  Mr. 
Alderman  Newnham  rose  and  said  : — 

"  *  Sir,  I  am  extremely  happy  that  the  motion 
which  I  was  to  have  had  the  honour  of  making 

1  "Parliamentary  History,"  vol.  xxvi.,  1786-1788,  from  which  the 
following  quotations  are  taken. 


SHERIDAN'S   APOLOGY  207 

to-day  is  no  longer  necessary,  and  it  is  with  a  most 
sincere  and  heartfelt  satisfaction  that  I  inform  the 
House  that  I  decline  bringing  it  forward.' 

"  Expressions  of  joy  and  satisfaction  were  heard 
on  all  sides.  Mr.  Drake  began  with  saying  that  'as 
he  was  one  who  had  joined  his  feeble  voice' — as 
Mr.  Drake  had  a  most  powerful  voice,  and  always 
spoke  uncommonly  loud,  there  was  a  universal  roar 
of  laughter,  in  which  Mr.  Drake,  with  equal  good 
humour,  joined,  then  rallied  by  saying  that  'un- 
doubtedly his  voice  was  not  feeble  by  nature,  but 
most  feeble  when  weighed  with  the  little  importance 
of  the  person  who  possessed  it.  But  he  joined  his 
hearty  voice  in  congratulation,  and  declared  his  un- 
feigned joy  in  what  had  occurred.  The  excessive 
gladness  of  his  heart  was  superior  to  eloquence,  and 
the  pleasantness  of  his  sensations  almost  deprived 
him  of  the  power  of  uttering  his  sentences  intel- 
ligibly.' 

"Mr.  Pitt  'readily  concurred  in  the  joy  which 
the  hon.  gentleman  expressed.'  Mr.  Fox  said  '  that 
all  must  feel  the  highest  satisfaction  ;  but  he  added 
that  it  would  remain  to  be  seen  by  substantial  acts 
whether  their  motion  were  necessary  or  not.'  Mr. 
Rolle  introduced  into  the  general  harmony  a  jarring 
note.  '  He  tempered  his  satisfaction  by  observing 
that  if  it  should  hereafter  appear  that  any  concession 
had  been  made,  humiliating  to  the  country  or  dis- 
honourable in  itself,  he  would  be  the  first  man  to 
stand  up  and  stigmatise  it  as  it  deserved.'  Mr.  Pitt 
1  assured  him  that  it  was  not  so.* " 

Then  Sheridan  rose  for  the  purpose  of  carrying 
out  the  delicate  and  difficult  task  with  which  the 


208  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Prince  had  entrusted  him.  He  was  "  to  say  some- 
thing "  which,  while  it  would  leave  Fox's  denial  of 
the  marriage  unimpaired,  would  yet  soothe  the 
irritated  feelings  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  To  do  this 
without  bringing  up  Rolle  was  a  feat  which  taxed 
even  the  ingenuity  of  Sheridan.  However,  he  got 
through  it  creditably. 

Mr.  Sheridan  began  by  saying  that :  "He  could 
not  but  believe  that  there  existed  on  that  day 
but  one  feeling  and  one  sentiment  in  the  House, 
that  of  heartfelt  satisfaction  at  the  auspicious  con- 
clusion to  which  the  business  was  understood  to 
be  brought  .  .  .  Mr.  Sheridan,  however,  wished  it 
to  be  understood  that  though  his  Royal  Highness 
felt  the  most  perfect  satisfaction  at  the  prospect 
before  him  .  .  .  yet  did  he  also  desire  it  to  be 
distinctly  remembered  that  no  attempt  had  at  any 
time  been  made  to  screen  any  part  of  his  conduct, 
actions,  or  situation,  from  their  view ;  that  he  even 
offered  to  answer  himself  (in  the  House  of  Lords) 
any  question  that  might  be  put  to  him.  That  no 
such  idea  had  been  pursued,  that  no  such  inquiry 
had  been  adopted,  was  a  point  which  did  credit  to 
the  decorum  and  dignity  of  Parliament."  [So  far  all 
had  been  plain  sailing,  but  now  Sheridan  came  to 
the  most  delicate  part  of  his  task.]  Mr.  Sheridan 
continued :  "  But  while  his  Royal  Highness's  feel- 
ings had  been  doubtless  considered  on  the  occasion, 
he  must  take  the  liberty  of  saying,  however  much 
some  might  think  it  a  subordinate  considera- 
tion, that  there  was  another  Person  entitled  in 
every  honourable  and  delicate  mind  to  the  same 
attention,  whom  he  would  not  otherwise  attempt  to 


SHERIDAN'S   APOLOGY  209 

describe,  or  allude  to,  except  to  affirm  that  ignorance 
or  vulgar  malice  alone  could  have  persevered  in 
attempting  to  injure  one  on  whose  conduct  truth 
could  fix  no  just  reproach,  and  whose  character 
claimed,  and  was  entitled  to,  the  truest  and  most 
general  respect." 

Sheridan's  words  made  a  sensation  in  the  House, 
but  the  accounts  of  how  they  were  received  differ. 
His  speech  was  followed,  we  are  told  in  one 
account,  by  a  murmur  of  general  approval,  and 
his  remarks  were  felt  to  be  in  the  best  of  taste. 
On  the  other  hand,  Daniel  Pulteney  writes  to  the 
Duke  of  Rutland  the  same  day,1  May  4,  1787: 
"What  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  can  do  in  her  present 
embarrassed  situation  I  cannot  pretend  to  guess, 
but  Sheridan  attempted,  very  foolishly,  to  repair 
the  statement  respecting  the  marriage  by  saying 
to-day  in  the  House  her  situation  was  '  truly  respec- 
table,' at  which  every  one  smiled." 

Sheridan's  explanation  or  apology,  call  it  what 
we  will,  served  to  throw  doubt  on  Fox's  denial. 
It  has  been  well  said  :  "  Mr.  Fox  had  declared  that 
a  lady  living  with  the  Prince  to  all  exterior  appear- 
ance in  the  habits  of  matrimonial  connection  had 
not  the  sanction  of  any  canonical  forms  to  support 
her ;  whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  Sheridan  reversed 
the  picture,  by  representing  her  as  a  paragon  of 
chastity,  the  possessor  of  every  virtue,  and  the 
ornament  of  her  sex." 

Fox  could  not  have  been  well  pleased  to  hear 
Sheridan's  encomiums.  But  where  women  were 
concerned,  he  was  always  a  cynic,  and  he  appears 

1  Rutland  MSS.,  op.  cit. 
VOL.    I.  O 


210  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

to  have  felt  it  his  duty  to  let  Sheridan's  speech  make 
no  difference  in  his  course  of  action,  and  to  do  his 
best  to  secure  the  payment  of  the  Prince's  debts. 
These  debts  were  settled  a  few  weeks  later,  after 
some  further  hesitation  and  delay,  due,  Pitt  after- 
wards said,  to  the  shiftiness  of  the  King.  George 
III.  succeeded  in  the  end  in  shelving  the  greater 
portion  of  them  off  his  shoulders  on  to  Parliament. 
A  fresh  schedule  was  prepared  for  the  King  "with 
the  debts  of  honour  left  out,"  and  on  May  21,  1787, 
the  Prime  Minister  brought  down  to  the  House 
the  royal  message  recommending  a  discharge  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  embarrassments  on  the  strength 
of  a  "  well-grounded  expectation  "  that  he  would 
not  contract  debts  in  future.  The  House  of 
Commons,  in  response,  voted  .£161,000  in  pay- 
ment of  the  Prince's  debts  and  ,£60,000  for  the 
completion  of  Carlton  House.  The  King  on  his 
part  agreed  to  give  the  Prince  another  £10,000  a 
year  out  of  his  own  Civil  List. 

The  Prince  hailed  this  relief  with  delight,  though 
the  increase  to  his  income  was  too  small  to  be  of 
any  real  use,  and  the  sum  voted  for  Carlton  House 
was  only  a  third  of  what  was  necessary,  and  there 
was  no  grant  for  his  new  Pavilion  at  Brighton. 
But  he  probably  regarded  the  Parliamentary  grant 
only  as  an  instalment  which  would  serve  to  tide 
him  over  his  present  difficulty. 

The  prodigal  son  was  now  taken  back  to  the 
paternal  fold,  and  that  all  might  see  that  peace 
was  restored  to  the  royal  family,  the  reconciliation 
between  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  his  parents  was 
as  public  as  their  quarrel.  The  chief  personages 


SHERIDAN'S  APOLOGY  211 

in  the  Prince's  household  attended  the  drawing- 
room  on  May  24,  and  the  King  and  Queen  received 
them  with  great  affability.  The  next  day  the 
Prince  had  an  interview  with  the  King  of  three 
hours'  duration,  after  which  he  was  presented  to 
his  mother  and  sisters ;  everything  was  forgiven 
and  all  was  harmony. 

By  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  the  Prince  was  also  forgiven, 
but  she  did  not  yield  without  difficulty.  Sheridan's 
speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  though  it  had 
soothed  her  wounded  feelings,  had  not  satisfied  her. 
How  could  it  do  so?  How  could  anything  do  so 
short  of  an  avowal  of  the  marriage  as  public  as 
the  denial  ?  But  even  she  saw  that  the  political 
exigencies  of  the  situation  made  this  impossible. 
Her  first  thought  was  to  break  off  all  connection 
with  the  Prince,  and  had  she  consulted  her  own 
dignity  and  happiness  she  would  have  done  so. 
For  a  time  she  would  not  see  him,  and  he  became 
quite  ill  from  the  agitation  brought  on  by  her 
refusal.  He  had  one  of  his  violent  paroxysms,  and 
had  to  be  bled.  Alarming  rumours  were  circulated 
about  his  health,  of  course  greatly  exaggerated. 
"  He  is  better  to-day,  but  still  in  great  danger," 
wrote  Thomas  Orde  to  the  Duke  of  Rutland,  May 
28,  I787.1  The  Prince  vowed  he  would  kill  him- 
self unless  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  forgave  him.  These 
manoeuvres  had  the  effect  of  persuading  her — 
perhaps  she  was  willing  to  be  persuaded — that 
the  Prince  was  not  really  to  blame  in  the  matter 
at  all,  it  was  all  the  work  of  the  wicked  Fox. 
She  yielded  to  the  Prince's  prayers  and  to  the 
1  Rutland  MSS.,  op.  cit. 


212  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

entreaties  of  their  friends,  and  a  reconciliation  took 
place  ;  but  though  of  a  forgiving  disposition,  she 
absolutely  refused  to  forgive  Fox,  and  made  it  a 
condition  that  she  should  not  be  forced  to  meet 
him.  This  the  Prince  could  promise  with  safety, 
for  Fox,  disgusted  with  what  he  considered  to  be 
the  Prince's  ingratitude,  and  not  caring  to  face 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  absented  himself  from  Carlton 
House,  and  later  went  abroad. 

Short  of  a  public  disavowal  of  Fox's  speech  the 
Prince  did  everything  to  cast  a  doubt  upon  the 
lie  told  in  Parliament.  It  was  understood  among 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  intimates  and  his  own,  that 
the  denial  had  been  made  for  political  purposes 
only,  and,  taking  their  cue  from  their  royal  master, 
the  minions  of  Carlton  House  went  about  every- 
where whispering  that  Fox  had  exceeded  his  in- 
structions. 

The  reconciliation  between  the  Prince  and  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  seems  to  have  been  effected  after  a  few 
weeks,  for  Lord  Ailesbury  writes,  May  25  :  "I  met 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  as  I  went  past  the  Queen's 
House,  in  his  phaeton,  in  which  I  understood  he 
took  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  to  Epsom  races,  and  on  his 
return,  after  a  cold  dinner,  he  was  at  the  Duchess 
of  Gordon's  ball,  where  my  daughter  saw  him  dance. 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  danced  a  good  deal."1 

Again  we  read  of  a  grand  ball  and  supper  at  Sir 
Sampson  and  Lady  Gideon's.  At  supper  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  sat  with  the  Prince  at  the  head  of  the 
table  between  her  host  and  hostess.  It  was  noticed 

1  "Diary  of  Thomas,  Earl  of  Ailesbury."    Ailesbury  MSS.     His- 
torical MSS.  Commission,  vol.  ii. 


SHERIDAN'S  APOLOGY  213 

that  she  wore  white  roses  in  her  hair  and  at  her 
breast ;  all  her  intimate  friends  were  present,  and 
the  company  vied  with  each  other  in  paying  her 
homage.  This  supper  was  facetiously  known  as  the 
"  Feast  of  Reconciliation."  Such  was  the  belief  in  the 
goodness  of  her  character  that  she  gained  respect 
rather  than  lost  it  by  'Fox's  denial  of  her  marriage. 
"  She  informed  me,"  wrote  Lord  Stourton,  "  that  the 
public  supported  her  by  their  conduct  on  this  occa- 
sion ;  for  at  no  part  of  her  life  were  their  visits  so 
numerous  at  her  house  as  on  the  day  which  followed 
Mr.  Fox's  memorable  speech  ;  and,  to  use  her  own 
expression,  the  knocker  of  her  door  was  never 
still  during  the  whole  day."  She  was  generally 
regarded  as  a  cruelly  injured  woman,  the  victim  of 
political  expediency,  Not  only  did  her  friends,  like 
the  Duchess  of  Cumberland  and  the  Duchess  of 
Devonshire,  hasten  to  show  their  sympathy,  but 
the  Duchess  of  Portland,  who  had  hitherto  held 
aloof,  and  whose  husband  had  quarrelled  with  the 
Prince,  now  called  on  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  asked 
her  to  her  house.  By  so  doing  she  showed  to  all 
that  neither  she  nor  the  Duke  believed  what 
Fox  had  said.  Lord  and  Lady  Sefton,  who 
had  hitherto  avoided  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  since  her 
marriage,  followed  suit.  The  Tory  Duchess  of 
Gordon,  a  great  friend  of  Pitt's  and  of  Queen 
Charlotte's,  loudly  proclaimed  that  Fox  had  lied, 
and  showed  her  belief  in  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  by 
inviting  her  to  the  ball  already  mentioned.  The 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  the  King's  brother,  who, 
with  his  Duchess,  was  at  Florence,  wrote  to  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  a  little  note,  and  sent  her  a  present, 


2i4  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

which,    coming  at  this  time,  was   of  great   signifi- 
cance : — 

H.R.H.   The  Duke  of  Gloucester  y  to 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 

"  FLORENCE,  May  24,  1787. 

"DEAR  MADAM, — I  take  the  opportunity  of  a 
private  hand  to  desire  your  acceptance  of  a  Cestus, 
done  in  oyster  shell.  I  hope  you  will  think  it 
pretty.  Pray  send  us  by  the  safest  opportunity 
some  account  to  trust  to  of  the  present  negotiation. 
I  hope  the  Prince  will  be  made  easy  in  his  affairs. 
I  sincerely  hope  you  are  happy  and  well,  for  I 
know  you  deserve  it.  I  remain,  dear  Madam,  your 
humble  Servant, 

"  WILLIAM  HENRY."  x 

Thus  the  King's  two  brothers  and  their  wives, 
and  some  of  the  greatest  ladies  of  society,  on  both 
sides  of  politics,  showed  their  sympathy  with  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  in  this  crisis,  and  no  doubt  it  was  their 
support  which  enabled  her  to  bear  with  admirable 
temper  and  dignity  the  cruel  imputation  which  had 
been  cast  upon  her.  The  old  Roman  Catholic 
families,  which  included  some  of  the  greatest  names 
in  the  peerage,  rallied  round  her.  They  considered 
that  she  had  been  made  to  suffer  on  account  of  her 
religion.  Even  those  who  had  though  ther  impru- 
dent and  unwise  in  consenting  to  such  a  marriage 
supported  her  now  that  the  fact  of  the  marriage 
was  called  into  question.  To  the  Archbishop  of 

1  This  letter  was  found  among  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  papers  after  her 
death. 


SHERIDAN'S  APOLOGY  215 

Canterbury  it  all  seemed  "very  odd,"  particularly 
as  he  noted  "  the  lady  is  more  received  than  ever 
she  was,  and  stands  more  forward."  To  those  who 
accepted  Fox's  denial  it  was  naturally  "odd." 

Though  these  were  few  in  London  society,  among 
the  general  public  they  were  numerous.  And  from 
them  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  to  run  the  gauntlet  of 
much  ignorant  criticism  and  public  odium.  Gillray 
published  (May  21,  1787)  a  political  print  entitled 
"  Dido  Forsaken.  Sic  transit  Gloria  Reginae" 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  grasping  a  crucifix,  is  seated  all 
forlorn  on  a  rock.  A  breeze  blown  by  Pitt  and 
Dundas  carries  away  her  coronet  and  feathers,  as 
Princess  of  Wales.  In  a  boat  named  Honour, 
bound  for  Windsor,  sail  away  the  Prince,  Fox,  who 
steers,  Lord  North,  and  Burke.  The  Prince  says, 
"  I  never  saw  her  in  my  life."  Fox  cries,  "No, 
never  in  his  life,  damme."  Burke  and  North  echo, 
"  No,  never."  On  the  ground  lie  fetters,  an  axe, 
rods,  and  a  harrow  "  for  the  conversion  of  heretics" 
— another  allusion  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  religion, 
which,  indeed,  was  the  prime  cause  of  all  her 
troubles. 

A  great  many  ill-informed  articles  appeared  in 
the  English  papers,  unnecessary  to  be  quoted  here, 
but  a  French  paper,  Le  Courier  de  I' Europe,  which 
was  supposed  to  represent  in  some  measure  the 
views  of  the  foreign  courts,  contained  the  follow- 
ing venomous  paragraph  : — "  La  fable  du  pretendu 
marriage  de  S.A.  Mgr.  le  Prince  de  Galles,  a 
enfin  ete  expliquee  en  plein  Parlement  de  maniere 
a  ne  plus  laisser  de  doute.  C'est  une  explication, 
qui  est  d'autant  plus  facheuse  pour  Mad.  Fitz.  que 


2i6  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Ton  a  suppos6  des  liens  entre  S.A.R.  et  cette  dame 
pour  lesquels  on  n'avoit  pas  encore  prononc^s. 
Jusqu'ici  Mad.  F.  a  etait  re9ue  dans  toutes  les 
societ^s,  ou  6toit  invit6  le  Prince,  mais  il  ne  sera 
guere  possible  aujourd'hui  qu'elle  jouisse  les  m£mes 
avantages,  a  moins  que  cette  premiere  explication 
n'en  entraine  une  autre  et  que  la  pretendue  intimite 
de  S.A.R.  ne  soit  presentee  sous  couleurs  admis- 
sibles  en  bonne  compagnie." 

This  paper,  it  will  be  seen,  made  no  allusion  to 
Sheridan's  apology.  In  any  case  its  forecast  was 
wrong.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  more  generally  re- 
ceived than  before. 


CHAPTER  XII 

A   QUEEN  OF   HEARTS 
(1787—1789) 

THE  Prince  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  left  London 
earlier  than  usual  this  year  (1787).  The  first  days 
of  July  found  them  at  Brighton,  the  Prince  at  his 
Pavilion,  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  at  her  little  house 
hard  by.  They  were  followed  by  a  numerous  com- 
pany. Marvellous  was  the  change  which  every 
year  now  wrought  in  Brighton.  This  year  it  was 
filled  to  overflowing :  not  a  house  or  lodging  was  to 
be  had,  and  its  virtues  as  a  health  resort  were  ex- 
tolled to  the  skies.  "We  have  never  seen  H.R.H. 
in  better  health  or  more  buoyant  spirits  than  in 
his  evening  walks  on  the  Steine,"  writes  a  journal ; 
"  his  company  on  these  promenades,  exclusive  of 
the  gentlemen  of  his  suite,  was  Mrs.  Fptzherbert], 
the  Countess  of  Talbot,  and  Lady  Stowell."1  The 
Prince  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  promenaded  daily  on 
the  Steine,  which  was  the  meeting-place  of  all  the 
Prince's  friends.  Brighton  was  fast  becoming  the 
favourite  resort  of  many  families  of  distinction,  who 
took  houses  there,  such  as  the  Marlborough  family, 
the  Duke  of  Grafton  (of  "Junius"  notoriety),  the 
Tankervilles,  the  Downshires,  the  Clares,  and  the 
Duke  of  Bedford.  The  Prince  often  appeared  on 

1  Morning  Herald^  July  24,  1787. 
217 


2i 8  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

the  Steine  leaning  on  the  arm  of  the  Duke,  who 
was  a  great  friend  both  of  the  Prince  and  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert. 

The  Prince  indulged  in  healthy  pleasures. 
Cricket  was  one  of  his  favourite  pastimes  this 
year,  and  many  were  the  matches  played  in  the 
Pavilion  Gardens.  Every  morning,  weather  per- 
mitting, the  Prince  bathed  in  the  sea,  and  his 
swimming  was  superintended  by  an  amphibious 
old  sailor  called  Smoker.  The  following  anecdote 
of  Smoker  has  come  down  to  us  : — A  boisterous 
night  was  succeeded  by  a  very  rough  sea,  and  the 
waves  broke  upon  the  beach  with  great  violence. 
The  Prince  notwithstanding  repaired  to  his  usual 
bathing-place,  where  Smoker  was  waiting  to  re- 
ceive him.  "  I  shall  bathe  this  morning,  Smoker." 
"  No,  no,  your  Royal  Highness,"  replied  Smoker, 
"  it  is  too  dangerous."  "  But  I  will,"  said  the  Prince, 
and  was  proceeding  towards  the  machine,  when 
the  doughty  Smoker  stepped  in  front  of  him,  and 
putting  himself  in  a  boxing  attitude  (for  the  fellow 
could  box  as  well  as  he  could  swim),  expostulated 
with  the  Prince  as  follows :  "  Come,  come,  this 
won't  do.  I'll  be  damned  if  you  shall  bathe.  What 
do  you  think  your  royal  father  would  think  of  me 
if  you  were  drowned?  He  would  say,  'This  is  all 
owing  to  you,  Smoker.  If  you  had  taken  proper 
care  of  him,  poor  George  would  still  be  alive.' " 1 
The  Prince  good-naturedly  desisted.  He  often 
related  the  anecdote  to  his  friends. 

Smoker  had  his  counterpart  in  Martha  Gunn,  the 

1  "Brighton  in  the  Olden  Time  (pamphlet},  By  an  Inhabitant 
thereof." 


MARTHA   GUNN 
THE  BRIGHTON    BATHING-WOMAN 


WELTJE 

THE   PRINCE'S  COOK   AND   MAJOR-DOMO 


A  QUEEN   OF   HEARTS  219 

celebrated  bathing- woman  of  Brighton,  who  superin- 
tended the  marine  ablutions  of  many  beautiful  ladies, 
among  others  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  whom  she  always 
addressed  as  "  Mrs.  Prince."  Martha  Gunn  was  in 
high  favour  with  the  Prince,  who  often  joked  with 
her  on  the  subject  of  her  calling  with  more  wit  than 
delicacy.  Martha  was  what  was  known  as  a  "  ticket 
holder,"  and  she  had  the  traditional  right  of  entry  to 
the  royal  kitchen  at  the  Pavilion,  where  she  was 
always  well  treated.  The  following  story  is  told 
of  one  of  her  visits :  "  When  in  the  kitchen  one 
afternoon  Martha  was  presented  with  a  pound  of 
butter.  The  Prince  at  that  moment  was  seen 
entering  the  kitchen,  and  Martha,  whispering  to  the 
servants,  quickly  deposited  the  butter  in  her  pocket. 
This  little  bit  of  legerdemain  was,  doubtless,  ob- 
served by  the  Prince ;  and,  being  ripe  for  a  joke, 
he  speedily  entered  into  conversation  with  Martha, 
getting  the  '  butter  side '  of  her,  and  edging  her 
nearer  and  nearer  to  the  great  kitchen  fire.  It 
was  a  sad  dilemma.  The  Prince  kept  talking,  and 
the  butter  kept  melting!  But  the  venerable  dame 
— whose  rueful  countenance  doubtless  betrayed  her 
sensations — was  afraid  to  move.  External  evidence 
on  the  floor,  however,  soon  after  showed  the  Prince 
that  his  design  was  accomplished,  and  he  bade  the 
old  lady  'good  day.'  The  internal  evidence  he 
was  contented  to  leave  to  Martha  herself.  What 
this  was  may  be  imagined,  but  deponent  sayeth 
not."1 

Despite  his  love  of  a  practical  joke,  occasionally 

1  "The  Brighton  Pavilion  and  its  Royal  Associations."     By  J.  G. 
Bishop. 


220  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

at  his  servants'  expense,  the  Prince  was  adored  by 
all  his  retainers  for  his  friendliness  and  kindly  in- 
terest in  their  welfare.  No  master  ever  had  more 
devoted  servants  than  he. 

Of  the  Prince's  kindness  to  his  servants  there  are 
many  anecdotes.  Once  at  Brighton  a  stable-boy 
named  Tom  Croys  had  been  dismissed  by  the  head 
groom  for  stealing  oats.  Going  round  his  stables 
one  day  the  Prince  noticed  the  boy  was  gone,  and 
inquired  the  cause.  When  he  was  told,  he  was  ex- 
tremely angry  that  any  one  in  his  service  should  be 
dismissed  without  his  knowledge,  and  commanded 
that  the  boy  should  be  sent  for.  The  boy,  tears 
trickling  down  his  face,  was  brought  before  his 
royal  master.  The  Prince  reprimanded  him,  asked 
if  it  were  a  first  offence,  and  then  said :  "  Tom,  if 
you  are  taken  back  to  my  stables  again,  can  I  trust 
you  ? "  The  boy  promised  amendment.  Then  said 
the  Prince :  "Go  back  and  recover  your  character. 
Be  diligent,  be  honest,  and  make  me  your  friend ; 
and,  hark  'ee,  Tom,  I  will  take  care  that  no  one 
shall  ever  taunt  you  with  what  is  passed."  The 
boy  went  back,  and  became  an  honest  and  trust- 
worthy servant. 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  received  the  warmest  welcome 
this  year  at  Brighton.  No  one  believed  Fox's 
denial  of  her  marriage,  and  every  one  was  anxious, 
by  increased  respect,  to  make  amends  for  the  wrong 
done  her.  The  public  repudiation  "in  the  House  of 
Commons,"  wrote  an  old  Brighton  habitut  in  after 
years,  "did  not  appear  to  have  any  more  effect  upon 
the  Brighton  community  than  it  produced  on  herself. 
High  authorities  in  the  fashionable  world — con- 


A   QUEEN   OF   HEARTS  221 

fidential  friends  of  the  lady — mysteriously  intimated 
a  knowledge  that  the  denial  was  a  sham,  and  as 
the  heir-apparent  still  continued  to  be  accessible  by 
paying  attention  to  her,  the  excitement  respecting 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  and  the  Prince  remained  unabated. 
...  I  can  recall  her  to  mind  at  this  time,"  continues 
the  writer,  "radiant  in  her  brilliant  loveliness — her 
delicate  features,  her  pure  complexion,  her  exquisite 
brown  eyes,  her  serene  expression,  combining  to 
produce  a  face  that  impressed  every  spectator  with 
a  delightful  sense  of  amiability  and  tenderness ; 
while  her  figure,  set  off  to  the  best  advantage  by 
the  costume  of  the  time,  was  always  distinguishable 
from  those  of  the  aristocratic  beauties  by  whom  she 
was  generally  surrounded,  by  its  singular  dignity 
and  grace.  Though  nobody  ventured  to  call  her 
1  Princess,'  every  one  of  her  innumerable  admirers 
of  both  sexes  enthroned  her  as  a  queen.  She  was 
recognised  as  the  '  Queen  of  Hearts '  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  fast-increasing  Brighton, 
and  a  more  loyal  people  it  was  impossible  for  a 
Sovereign  to  have.  They  honoured  her,  they  almost 
worshipped  her.  Proud  was  the  aspirant  of  Fashion 
who  succeeded  in  obtaining  her  notice  in  public ; 
honoured  the  devotee  of  gentility  who  could  boast 
the  least  acquaintance  with  her  in  private.  To  be 
invited  to  meet  her  at  the  palatial  Pavilion  was 
acknowledged  to  be  a  covetable  distinction,  but 
to  be  welcomed  by  her  to  her  modest  house  was 
regarded  as  a  precious  privilege.  She  never  had 
an  enemy,  and  was  constantly  increasing  her  circle 
of  friends." 

The  late   Mr.    Shergold   of  Brighton,  who  died 


222  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

within  the  memory  of  many,  has  also  given  an 
enthusiastic  account  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  as  she 
appeared  about  this  period. 

"  I  have  seen  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,"  he  writes,  "many 
a  time  and  oft.  Once  I  had  the  pleasure  to  see 
that  beautiful  creature  in  a  way  that  made  a  deep 
impression  on  me.  I  was  going  from  Castle  Square 
towards  the  Steine,  and  had  just  arrived  at  the 
corner  of  the  Castle  Tavern,  and  was  turning,  when 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  accompanied  by  her  brother,  Mr. 
Smythe,  appeared.  I  was  then  about  eighteen,  a 
very  susceptible  age,  when  a  man  feels  the  beauty  of 
woman,  the  beauty  of  art,  the  beauty  of  poetry,  the 
beauty  of  everything  really  beautiful,  if  ever  he 
feels  it  at  all.  The  lady  was  walking — the  day  was 
splendid,  the  sun  was  at  its  meridian — there  was  not 
a  cloud.  All  this  I  remember  well,  and  I  remember 
well  also,  that  at  the  moment  the  most  beautiful 
object  in  the  world  seemed  to  be  Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 
Had  I  seen  the  lady  sitting  or  standing  I  should 
doubtless  have  thought  her  beautiful ;  but  her  fine 
and  graceful  person  was  in  motion — her  countenance, 
at  all  times  singularly  expressive,  was  unusually 
animated  by  the  fineness  of  the  weather,  and,  as 
she  came  suddenly  upon  me,  with  all  her  personal 
attractions  heightened  by  the  same  adventitious 
setting-off,  I  saw  her  more  than  usually  beautiful. 
.  .  .  She  was  a  woman  who  needed  nothing  but  a 
diadem  to  make  her  a  queen." 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  in  fact  the  recognised  queen 
of  the  fashionable  society  in  Brighton.  All  who 
went  there  paid  her  court.  This  was  so  well  under- 
stood that  the  Duke  of  Rutland,  who  was  Lord- 


A   QUEEN   OF   HEARTS  223 

Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  wrote  from  Dublin  to  his 
Duchess1  not  to  go  to  Brighton,  as  in  that  event 
the  Prince  of  Wales  would  ask  her  to  visit  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert,  "  which  I  would  have  you  avoid,  but  I  hear  it 
is  indispensable  with  him,  so  you  had  better  be  silent 
on  that  head  until  he  asks  you — if  he  should  do  so 
at  all — and  then  I  think  your  state  of  health  will  be  a 
good  excuse."2  And  again :  "  If  you  go  to  bathe  in 
the  sea,  do  not  go  to  Brighthelmstone,  because  you 
will  be  under  a  difficulty  about  Mrs.  Fitzherbert." 

But  the  Duchess  did  not  heed  her  lord.  She 
was  a  stately  beauty  of  the  type  of  a  Grecian  god- 
dess, haughty  and  very  self-willed.  We  find  her  in 
July  at  Brighton,  and  the  Duke  still  writing  (July 
29),  "  I  hope  you  will  not  find  embarrassment 
about  Mrs.  Fitzherbert."  So  far  from  suffering 
any  "  embarrassment,"  we  find  the  Duchess  joining 
the  Prince's  select  party  at  the  Lewes  races,  a 
party  which  included  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  the  Duke 
and  Duchess  of  Cumberland,  and  the  Princesse 
de  Lamballe,  "  who  was  particularly  distinguished 
through  the  day  by  the  enviable  attentions  of  the 
Duke  of  Queensberry," 3  Lord  and  Lady  Aberga- 
venny,  the  Countess  of  Talbot,  Lord  Clermont,  &c. 

One  night  early  in  August,  when  the  Prince  was 
supping  at  the  Pavilion,  seated  between  the  Prin- 
cesse de  Lamballe  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  the  news 

1  Mary  Isabella,  daughter  of  the  fourth  Duke  of  Beaufort,  m.  1775, 
Charles,  fourth  Duke  of  Rutland,  K.G.,  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland, 
who  died  at  Dublin  later  in  the  same  year,  1 787.   The  Duke's  objections, 
it  may  be  noted,  were  official  rather  than  personal,  the  Duchess 
being  the  wife  of  the  Viceroy. 

2  Rutland  MSS.,  op.  at. 

3  The  Morning  Herald,  August  6,  1787. 


224  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

came  to  him  that  his  brother  Frederick,  Duke  of 
York,  had  come  back  to  England  from  the  Con- 
tinent after  a  banishment  of  seven  years.  The 
Prince  at  once  posted  off  to  Windsor  to  welcome 
his  brother.  The  Duke  had  been  sent  into  exile 
shortly  before  his  elder  brother  came  of  age,  be- 
cause, in  the  King's  opinion,  the  brothers  acted 
and  reacted  badly  on  one  another.  The  experiment 
had  not  succeeded  in  the  case  of  the  Duke  of  York, 
for  he i achieved  at  Osnabruck,  Hanover,  and  Paris, 
a  reputation  for  wildness,  so  great  as  to  astonish 
even  Mirabeau.  His  reputation  was  probably  exag- 
gerated— it  was  certainly  belied  by  his  appearance. 
There  is  a  picture  of  him  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  at 
this  time  which  depicts  him  as  a  tall,  slim  youth,  with 
a  slight  stoop,  delicate  features,  and  a  refined,  sen- 
sitive mouth.  There  is  nothing  in  the  picture  of  the 
grossness  which  makes  itself  apparent  in  the  better- 
known  portraits  of  the  Duke  in  later  life. 

The  Duke  of  York,  despite  his  failings,  which  were 
those  of  most  young  princes  of  his  age,  had  many 
fine  qualities.  Like  the  rest  of  George  III.'s  sons, 
he  was  handsome,  high-spirited,  and  good-hearted. 
His  manners  lacked  the  grace  and  courtesy  of  those 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  He  was  brusque,  boisterous, 
and  broad  in  conversation,  but  he  was  more  truthful 
than  his  elder  brother,  more  straightforward,  more 
sincere,  and  he  never  forsook  a  friend.  He  made 
many  mistakes  in  later  life,  but  his  friends  loved 
him,  and  one  said  of  him  that  "  he  always  had  the 
instincts  of  an  English  gentleman."  He  was  the 
favourite  son  of  George  III.,  who  was  never  tired 
of  contrasting  him  favourably  with  the  Prince  of 


A   QUEEN   OF   HEARTS  225 

Wales.  One  wonders,  if  he  were  so  fond  of  him, 
why  he  ever  sent  him  away.  The  description  of 
his  home-coming  is  Arcadian  in  its  display  of  family 
affection ;  the  happy  father  embraced  his  long 
absent  son,  the  Queen  and  her  daughters  joined 
in  the  raptures.  The  Prince  of  Wales  had  posted 
all  through  the  night  from  Brighton,  and  when  he 
reached  Windsor  the  meeting  between  the  brothers, 
we  are  told,  was  "  most  affecting."  After  regarding 
one  another  for  a  moment  in  silence  they  embraced, 
and  the  Prince  was  moved  to  tears.  Separation 
had  only  strengthened  their  fraternal  affection,  and 
it  was  soon  apparent  that  if  the  Duke  of  York  had 
to  choose  between  his  father  and  his  elder  brother 
he  would  throw  in  his  lot  unhesitatingly  with  the 
latter. 

As  soon  as  the  family  gathering  at  Windsor 
broke  up  the  Prince  took  his  long-lost  brother  to 
Brighton  and  introduced  him  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 
Thus  began  a  friendship  which  lasted  through  life  ; 
the  Duke  formed  a  high  idea  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
character  and  judgment.  He  must  early  have 
known  that  some  form  of  marriage  had  taken  place 
between  her  and  his  brother,  and  a  less  honour- 
able man  might  have  turned  the  knowledge  to  his 
advantage.  The  Duke  was,  as  Fox  reminded  the 
Prince  of  Wales  in  his  memorable  letter,  the  King's 
favourite  son,  and  the  next  after  him  in  succession 
to  the  throne.  It  was  a  disputed  legal  point  whether 
the  Royal  Marriage  Act  abrogated  the  clause  in  the 
Act  of  Settlement  which  made  the  Prince  who  con- 
tracted a  marriage  with  a  Roman  Catholic  ineligible 
for  the  succession,  but  whether  it  did,  or  did  not, 

VOL.  i.  p 


226  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

the  Duke  of  York,  stout  Protestant  though  he  was, 
never  raised  the  question.  He  was  the  last  man  in 
the  world  to  betray  a  confidence,  or  to  push  forward 
his  own  interests  at  the  expense  of  those  of  his 
brother.  He  had  a  sincere  regard  and  affection  for 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  also,  and  would  never  willingly  do 
anything  to  cause  her  pain.  He  invariably  treated 
her  with  that  deference  and  respect  which  a  man, 
however  dissolute  he  may  be,  shows,  if  he  is  a 
gentleman,  to  a  good  woman.  Later,  the  Duke  of 
York  rendered  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  material  service, 
by  becoming  a  medium  of  communication  between 
her  and  his  parents.  But  that  was  not  yet,  for 
the  King  and  Queen  still  regarded  her  coldly,  and 
were  anxious  that  all  connection  between  her  and 
the  Prince  should  be  broken  off. 

There  were  great  rejoicings  at  Brighton  during 
the  summer  that  followed  the  Duke's  return.  The 
Prince  celebrated  his  birthday  at  the  Pavilion  by  a 
sumptuous  entertainment,  and  in  the  evening  the 
town  was  illuminated.  But  the  gaiety  never  de- 
generated into  license,  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  good 
influence  continued  as  strong  as  ever.  This  im- 
provement was  noted  with  great  candour  by  the 
press.  "  The  Prince  of  Wales  gains  many  hearts 
by  his  affability  and  good-humour.  His  company  is 
much  better  than  it  used  to  be,  and  he  is  certainly 
more  sober  in  his  libations  to  Bacchus.  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert looks  more  elegant  than  ever.  One  could 
indeed  hardly  help  exclaiming  with  the  army  of 
Mahomet  II.,  when  he  showed  them  his  Irene, 
'  Such  a  woman  is  worth  a  kingdom.' "  * 

1  Morning  Post)  August  9,  1787 


FREDERICK,    DUKE   OF   YORK  AND   BISHOP  OF 
OSNABRUCK 


A   QUEEN   OF  HEARTS  227 

Though  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  much  attached  to 
the  Duke  of  York,  it  may  be  feared  that  his  return 
after  a  while  rather  added  to  her  trials  than  helped 
her.  The  royal  brothers,  in  their  joy  at  being 
re-united,  when  they  got  to  London,  plunged  once 
more  into  riotous  gaiety.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  suffered 
much  in  consequence,  not  only  on  the  Prince's 
account  but  her  own,  for  her  natural  refinement 
recoiled  from  these  scenes  of  revelry.  She  was  also 
subject  at  this  time  to  annoyance  from  the  fanati- 
cism of  the  half-crazed  Lord  George  Gordon,  who 
had  fomented  the  Gordon  riots  in  1780,  which  had 
been  indirectly  responsible  for  the  death  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert' s  second  husband.  He  now  again  tor- 
mented her  because  of  her  reported  marriage  to 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  He  was  at  this  time  being 
prosecuted  for  a  libel  he  had  circulated  concerning 
the  Queen  of  France.  He  dragged  into  his  defence, 
with  a  view  of  inflaming  popular  passion,  the  Prince 
of  Wales's  "  Papistical  wife,"  of  whom  he  spoke 
with  great  freedom,  and  said  that  he  desired  her  to 
attend  the  court  and  give  evidence.  When  he  was 
asked  for  what  reason  he  wished  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
to  appear  in  court,  he  replied  that  he  had  had  a 
conversation  with  her  in  Paris  a  few  years  ago 
concerning  some  intrigue  between  the  French  and 
British  Courts,  and  he  wished  to  substantiate  what 
he  had  said.  Of  course  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  refused 
to  appear,  but  nothing  daunted,  Lord  George  called 
at  her  house  in  London  and  tried  to  serve  a 
subpoena  on  her.  He  was  turned  out  of  doors 
by  her  servants,  and  he  was  also  threatened  with 
chastisement  by  her  brother  if  he  molested  her 


228  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

further.  The  threat  had  its  effect,  for  he  did  not  go 
to  her  house  again.  But  he  wrote  the  following 
letter  to  Mr.  Pitt : — 

Lord  George  Gordon  to  the  Right  Hon. 
William  Pitt,  M.P. 

"SiR, — Mr.  Walter  Smythe,  brother  to  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  came  to  my  house  in  Welbeck  Street 
this  morning,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Acton,  to  be 
present  whilst  he  informed  me  that  he  would  call 
me  to  an  account  if  I  went  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
house  again,  or  wrote  to  her,  or  to  him,  or  took 
liberties  with  their  names  in  public,  as  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert was  very  much  alarmed  when  my  name 
was  mentioned.  I  answered,  that  I  looked  upon 
this  as  a  threatening  visit ;  but  that  I  must  yet  apply 
to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  or  himself,  or  Sir  Carnaby 
Haggerston  as  often  as  I  found  occasion,  till  a 
written  answer  was  sent  to  me  concerning  the 
proper  title  of  their  sister,  just  as  if  he  had  not 
called  upon  me.  Some  other  conversation  passed 
respecting  the  marriage  ;  but  this  was  the  substance 
and  result  of  the  whole.  I  think  it  my  duty  to 
inform  you,  as  Prime  Minister,  that  you  may  be 
apprised  of,  and  communicate  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  the  overbearing  disposition  of  the 
Papists.  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  Sir,  your  most 
obedient  and  humble  servant, 

"  G.  GORDON. 

"4<tclock,  Friday,  May  4,  1788." 

These  were  trials  undoubtedly,   yet  Mrs.   Fitz- 
herbert had  her  compensations.      The  Prince  was 


A   QUEEN  OF   HEARTS  229 

still  devotedly  attached  to  her,  and  her  wishes  were 
his  law. 

The  year  which  followed  (1788-1789),  may  be 
regarded  as  marking  the  highest  point  of  her  in- 
fluence over  the  Prince.  Her  enemy  (as  she  con- 
ceived him  to  be),  Charles  James  Fox,  was  still 
abroad,  "disgusted,"  as  he  said,  "with  the  political 
situation,"  and  indignant,  so  his  friends  said,  at  the 
way  in  which  the  Prince  had  used  him  for  his  pur- 
pose, and  then  given  the  lie  to  what  he  had  stated 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  For  by  every  act  and 
word,  short  of  open  acknowledgment  of  his  mar- 
riage, the  Prince  seemed  desirous  of  mitigating 
the  force  of  Fox's  declaration.  He  treated  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  with  all  the  deference  which  a  man 
shows  to  his  honoured  wife.  She  was  every- 
where, by  his  command,  treated  with  respect, 
which  was  only  second  to  that  shown  to  Royalty. 
He  showered  gifts  upon  her ;  had  she  wished 
it  she  might  have  had  jewels  worth  a  king's 
ransom.  With  part  of  the  money  given  him 
by  Parliament,  the  Prince  took  for  her  a  mansion 
in  Pall  Mall,  and  decorated  and  furnished  it  in 
a  style  of  magnificence  which  vied  with  Carlton 
House,  though  it  was  modified  by  her  taste  into 
a  quiet  and  refined  luxury.  Here  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
maintained  an  establishment  which  was  semi-royal. 
She  did  not  live  alone ;  an  elderly  lady  of  good 
birth  and  irreproachable  character,  well  known 
to  the  royal  family,  Miss  Pigot,  stayed  in  her 
house,  accompanied  her  in  public,  and  filled  the 
position  of  companion,  or  rather  of  lady-in-waiting. 
All  the  wits  and  politicians,  who  were  known  as 


230  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

"  the  Prince's  friends,"  paid  her  their  homage,  and 
all  the  place-hunters  craved  her  favour  with  the 
Prince,  recognising  that  she  was  all  powerful.  Yet 
she  never  once  abused  the  trust  placed  in  her,  never 
thrust  herself  forward  unduly,  never  asked  for  a 
place  or  position  for  a  friend,  unless  that  friend 
were  qualified  for  it  on  other  grounds  than  her 
friendship.  Through  all  her  prosperity  she  never 
lost  her  head,  never  presumed  on  her  position,  or 
used  her  influence  for  ignoble  ends ;  never  forgot 
a  friend,  and  was  always  gracious,  kindly,  and  un- 
assuming. At  her  house  in  Pall  Mall  she  enter- 
tained freely.  '  Mary  Frampton,  who  had  known 
her  as  Mrs.  Weld  of  Lulworth,  describes  one  of 
these  receptions  in  her  "Journal": — 

"When  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  living  in  Pall  Mall, 
within  a  few  doors  of  Carlton  House,  we  were  at 
one  of  the  assemblies  she  gave,  which  was  alto- 
gether the  most  splendid  I  was  ever  at.  Attendants 
in  green  and  gold,  besides  the  usual  livery  servants, 
were  stationed  in  the  rooms  and  up  the  staircase  to 
announce  the  company  and  carry  about  refresh- 
ments, &c.  The  house  was  most  beautifully  fur- 
nished ;  one  room  was  hung  with  pucked  blue  satin. 
A  whole-length  picture  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and 
his  bust,  and  that  of  the  Duke  of  York,  ornamented 
the  dining-room.  Her  own  manners  ever  remained 
quiet,  civil,  and  unpretending ;  and  in  the  days  of 
her  greatest  influence  she  was  never  accused  of 
using  it  improperly.  The  Prince  and,  I  think,  his 
brother  the  Duke  of  York,  came  in  late  to  the 
assembly." l 

1    Frampton,  op.  cil. 


A   QUEEN   OF   HEARTS  231 

In  November  1789  the  Prince  and  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert  were  at  Brighton,  surrounded  by  their 
friends,  when  news  reached  them  of  the  alarming 
illness  of  the  King.  Throughout  the  autumn, 
strange  rumours  had  been  current  in  well-in- 
formed circles  concerning  the  King,  and  these 
gradually  filtered  down  through  the  clubs  and 
coffee-houses  to  the  general  public.  At  a  Lev6e, 
held  early  in  November,  the  King  behaved  so 
strangely  as  to  give  all  present  the  impression  that 
his  mind  was  disordered.  Still  his  physicians  did 
not  interfere,  and  for  nearly  a  fortnight  later,  the 
King  was  allowed  to  continue  the  round  of  his 
fatiguing  duties  without  let  or  hindrance,  with  the 
result  that  he  became  worse  every  day.  Every 
effort  was  made  to  conceal  his  condition,  but  in  the 
King's  immediate  circle  there  was  a  dread  of  com- 
ing disaster.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was  kept  in 
ignorance  as  long  as  possible,  but  at  last  came  a 
report  that  the  King  was  really  out  of  his  mind. 
Then  he  determined  to  see  how  matters  stood  for 
himself,  and  posted  from  Brighton  to  Windsor, 
where  the  Duke  of  York  already  was.  He  found 
the  King's  state  to  be  worse  than  he  anticipated. 
The  unhappy  monarch  perpetually  paced  up  and 
down,  pouring  out  a  stream  of  incoherent  talk, 
until  he  rendered  himself  almost  unintelligible  from 
hoarseness.  Still  he  was  under  no  restraint.  The 
arrival  of  the  Prince  at  Windsor  brought  matters 
to  a  climax.  In  the  evening,  during  dinner,  the 
King  suddenly,  and  without  provocation,  flew  at  his 
eldest  son,  seized  him  by  the  collar,  and  pushed  him 
against  the  wall,  violently  demanding  if  he  dared  to 


232  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

prevent  the  King  of  England  from  speaking  his 
mind.  Instantly  there  was  great  confusion — the 
Queen  fell  into  hysterics,  the  Princesses  screamed, 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  as  was  his  wont  when  agitated, 
burst  into  tears.  The  Duke  of  York  and  some  of 
the  courtiers  intervened,  and  the  King  presently  let 
his  son  go,  and  suffered  himself  to  be  led  away  to 
his  room.  That  night  he  was  quite  mad,  and,  his 
physicians  feared,  in  danger  of  his  life. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  STRUGGLE   FOR  THE   REGENCY 
(1788—1789) 

THE  Prince  of  Wales  suddenly  found  himself  thrust 
into  a  position  of  responsibility.  Instead  of  return- 
ing to  Brighton  next  day,  as  he  had  intended,  he 
remained  at  Windsor,  and  took  the  direction  of 
affairs  into  his  own  hands.  It  is  admitted  that  he 
behaved,  at  this  trying  juncture,  with  dignity  and 
discretion.  The  bad  news  spread  rapidly  all  over 
the  kingdom.  In  London  it  was  generally  believed 
that  the  King's  illness  was  of  a  fatal  nature.  Pitt 
thought  so  too ;  he  realised  that  the  King's  death 
meant  his  own  loss  of  power,  for  he  could  expect 
nothing  from  the  Prince,  whose  wishes  he  had 
constantly  thwarted.  The  Government  was  in  a 
difficult  situation,  and  its  difficulty  was  increased 
by  the  uncertainty  as  to  how  the  Lord  Chancellor, 
Thurlow,1  would  act.  His  dislike  and  jealousy  of 
Pitt  were  notorious,  and  he  was  quite  ready  to 
throw  in  his  lot  with  the  Prince's  party  should  it 
prove  to  be  the  winning  side.  The  Lord  Chief 
Justice,  Loughborough,2  was  also  secretly  hostile 
to  Pitt. 

1  Edward  Thurlow,  first  Baron  Thurlow,  Lord  Chancellor  (1731- 
1806). 

2  Alexander    Wedderburn,   first   Baron   Loughborough,   and   first 
Earl  of  Rosslyn,  sometime  Lord  Chancellor  (1735-1805). 

233 


234  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  who  had  been  left  at  Brighton, 
hastened  up  to  London  on  receipt  of  the  news  from 
Windsor,  so  as  to  be  in  more  direct  communication 
with  the  Prince.  The  King's  dangerous  illness 
affected  her  only  one  degree  less  acutely  than  it 
affected  the  heir-apparent  himself.  The  Prince 
had  always  promised  her  full  reparation  when  it 
should  be  in  his  power,  and  now  that  his  succession 
to  the  throne  seemed  imminent,  the  power  would 
soon  be  in  his  hands.  Whatever  form  that  repara- 
tion took,  it  could  not  fail  to  influence  profoundly 
her  future  life.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  not  an  am- 
bitious woman,  nor  was  she  one  who  sought  her 
own  interest,  except  where  her  good  name  was 
concerned.  She  did  not  care  for  wealth  or  power, 
and,  though  the  prospect  which  now  opened  before 
her  eyes  might  have  dazzled  any  woman,  she  kept 
her  head. 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  went  to  her  house  in  Pall  Mall, 
and  was  soon  in  communication  with  the  Prince's 
friends.  She  brought  with  her  from  Brighton 
Sheridan  and  his  wife,  and  they  stayed  with  her  for 
a  time,  "having,"  writes  a  contemporary,  "no  other 
habitation."  The  near  prospect  of  place  and  emolu- 
ment intoxicated  the  impecunious  Sheridan.  He 
acted  as  the  Prince's  confidential  agent  in  London  ; 
while  at  Windsor  the  Prince  had  with  him  one  of 
his  equerries,  Admiral  Payne,  familiarly  known  as 
"  Jack  Payne,"  who  sent  daily  bulletins  of  the 
progress  of  the  King's  illness  to  the  Prince's  friends 
in  London.  This  illness  went  from  bad  to  worse, 
until  it  seemed  that  the  King's  death  was  only  a 
question  of  hours.  "  The  last  stroke,"  wrote  Payne 


STRUGGLE   FOR  THE   REGENCY     235 

to  Loughborough  with  ill-disguised  eagerness,  "  as 
I  hear,  from  the  best  authority,  cannot  be  far  off. 
It  is  what  everybody,  in  a  situation  to  see,  is  obliged 
to  wish  as  the  happiest  possible  termination  to  the 
melancholy  scene.  The  event  we  looked  for  last 
night  is  postponed  perhaps  for  a  short  time."  Yet 
even  as  Payne  was  writing,  his  confident  anticipa- 
tions were  being  falsified.  The  King,  who  was 
thought  to  be  almost  at  his  last  gasp,  fell  into  a  pro- 
found sleep,  from  which  he  awoke  much  better. 
The  crisis  was  passed.  The  next  day  the  doctors 
pronounced  him  to  be  out  of  immediate  danger,  so 
far  as  his  bodily  health  was  concerned  ;  but  his  mental 
affliction  remained  as  bad,  or  worse,  than  before, 
and  the  physicians  confessed  that  they  considered 
it  to  be  permanent. 

The  King's  rally  was  a  blow  to  the  Prince  and  his 
friends.  He  decently  masked  his  disappointment, 
but  they  did  not  conceal  theirs.  The  new  situa- 
tion demanded  a  complete  revision  of  plans,  for  a 
Regency  and  not  a  sovereignty  was  now  the  end 
in  view.  A  council  of  the  Prince's  friends  was 
hurriedly  called  at  Bagshot.  Thither  came  secretly 
the  Prince  and  Payne  from  Windsor,  and  Sheridan 
and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  drove  down  from  London. 
Lord  Loughborough  had  been  invited,  but  now  that 
the  King  was  better  he  was  too  cautious  to  come, 
and  in  a  long  despatch  he  advised  the  Prince  to 
adopt  "not  dissimulation,  but  a  certain  reserve  and 
guard  upon  the  frankness  of  that  amiable  disposi- 
tion, which  is  the  ornament  and  delight  of  society." 
What  took  place  at  the  meeting  is  not  known,  but 
no  communication  at  that  time  seems  to  have  been 


236  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

made  by  the  Prince  to  the  official  heads  of  the 
Whig  party.  Sheridan  had  in  fact,  by  his  eager- 
ness for  place,  and  his  anxiety  to  display  his  own 
importance  and  show  his  possession  of  the  Prince's 
confidence,  given  offence  to  the  Duke  of  Portland 
and  other  influential  Whigs.  But  one  important 
development  followed  on  the  Bagshot  council. 
The  Prince  determined  to  consult  Fox  as  to  what 
should  be  done.  The  news  could  not  have  been 
welcome  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  yet  she  must  have 
seen  that  he  was  the  only  man  to  save  the  situation. 
To  the  Prince  at  such  a  crisis  he  was  indispensable. 

Fox  was  abroad,  but  a  messenger  had  been 
sent  to  him  on  the  sixth  day  after  the  King's 
outburst  at  Windsor,  and  since  then  courier  after 
courier  had  been  despatched  to  him  in  furious 
haste.  Fox  had  been  abroad  for  many  months,  and 
had  planned  for  himself  an  Italian  tour,  in  company 
with  Mrs.  Armitstead.  Disgusted  with  affairs  in 
England,  he  had  purposely  left  no  address.  He  re- 
ceived no  letters  and  he  read  no  newspapers.  The 
first  messenger  despatched  from  Windsor  traced 
Fox  to  Geneva,  but  lost  track  of  him  there.  After 
many  false  scents  he  finally  ran  him  to  earth  at 
Bologna. 

Fox  appreciated  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  and 
lost  not  a  moment  in  obeying  the  Prince's  summons. 
Turning  his  back  on  Italy  and  its  delights,  he 
started  at  once  homeward.  At  Lyons  he  found 
another  courier,  with  a  letter  telling  him  of  the 
King's  total  loss  of  reason.  He  pressed  on  with 
all  speed,  leaving  his  own  chariot  for  the  ordinary 
post  carriage  so  as  to  gain  time,  and  finally  reached 


STRUGGLE   FOR   THE   REGENCY     237 

London  on  November  24,  having  been  nine  days 
on  the  journey,  a  surprising  feat  considering  the 
conditions  of  the  roads,  and  the  means  of  travel 
in  those  days.  But  the  great  exertion  and  the 
fatigues  of  the  journey  had  told  heavily  on  his 
health,  and  it  was  some  time  before  he  recovered 
from  it. 

Fox  arrived  in  London  just  in  time.  Parliament, 
convened  for  November  20(1788),  had  been  pro- 
rogued until  December  4,  and  this  gave  breathing 
time.  Fox  at  once  impressed  upon  the  Prince  the 
necessity  of  a  reconciliation  with  the  Duke  of  Port- 
land, who  had  refused  to  help  in  the  matter  of  the 
Prince's  debts.  The  Prince  behaved  very  hand- 
somely. "Pray  shake  the  Duke  of  Portland  by 
the  hand  for  me,"  he  said,  "and  tell  him  that  I 
hope  everything  that  is  past  may  be  forgot  be- 
tween us."  With  the  exception  of  the  hasty  visit 
to  Bagshot,  and  an  occasional  escape  to  Carl  ton 
House,  the  Prince  had  all  this  time  been  detained 
at  Windsor,  where  he  fretted  at  the  confinement. 
Meanwhile  Pitt  and  the  other  Ministers  had  been 
down  to  Windsor,  and  had  seen  the  King,  but 
the  Prince  refused  to  see  them.  Soon  after  the 
Ministers'  visit  the  King  was  removed  to  Kew, 
and  placed  by  Pitt  under  the  care  of  an  ex-clergy- 
man named  Willis,  who  was  a  specialist  in  lunacy, 
and  with  his  son  had  made  some  remarkable 
cures. 

On  the  eve  of  the  opening  of  Parliament,  Decem- 
ber 4,  a  Cabinet  Council  was  held  at  Pitt's  house, 
and  as  soon  as  it  rose,  a  messenger  was  despatched 
to  Kew  with  a  letter  for  the  Queen.  Its  purport 


238  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

was  soon  known  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  con- 
firmed his  suspicions  that  Pitt  and  the  Queen 
were  in  league  against  him.  The  Queen  wrote 
to  her  eldest  son  a  letter  to  sound  him,  saying 
that  she  had  been  asked  to  take  a  share  in  the 
Regency,  but  that  she  thought  it  better  to  take 
no  part  in  politics,  but  devote  herself  solely  to  the 
King  in  his  sad  condition.  The  Prince  warily 
replied,  that  "  her  Majesty  might  assure  herself 
that  she  should  be  considered  as  his  Majesty's 
sole  guardian,  so  long  as  the  unhappy  malady 
should  continue."  On  the  surface  nothing  could 
be  more  proper  than  these  letters,  but  in  the 
light  of  subsequent  events  one  may  read  between 
the  lines,  and  see  in  them  the  beginning  of  the  long 
and  unedifying  struggle  between  mother  and  son. 

Parliament  reassembled  on  December  4,  and  it 
at  once  became  apparent  that  the  object  of  Pitt  was 
to  gain  time.  The  report  of  the  physicians  was 
laid  before  the  House.  It  was  very  vague,  but 
with  one  exception  (Warren)  the  doctors  inclined 
to  the  hope  that  the  King  might  recover.  The 
House  was  adjourned,  and  when  it  met  again  Pitt 
proposed  a  committee  to  examine  into  the  pre- 
cedents. This  step  was  violently  opposed  by  Fox, 
who  declared  that  as  the  heir-apparent  was  of  full 
age  and  capacity,  he  had  the  right  to  exercise  the 
governing  power,  so  long  as  the  King  remained  in 
his  present  state,  just  as  though  the  King  were 
dead,  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  ascended  the 
throne.  This  was  a  tactical  blunder,  for  it  paved 
the  way  to  endless  discussion.  Pitt  immediately 
pounced  on  Fox's  use  of  the  word  "right,"  and 


STRUGGLE  FOR   THE   REGENCY      239 

declared  it  to  be  a  treasonable  doctrine  (it  was 
certainly  a  most  un-Whiggish  one).  The  Prince 
had  a  "  claim,"  he  admitted,  but  no  more  right  than 
any  other  member  of  the  community.  On  this 
point  followed  impassioned  debates.  Burke  de- 
nounced Pitt  as  "one  of  the  Prince's  competitors" 
for  the  Regency,  and  Pitt  replied  in  a  "  damned 
passion."  Outside  the  wildest  canards  flew  about, 
and  party  feeling  ran  to  its  highest  pitch.  There 
were  rumours  of  a  "  Council  of  Regency,"  over 
which,  said  the  Whigs,  Pitt  would  preside,  "reign- 
ing as  King  William  IV." 

After  a  few  days  Pitt  affected  to  make  a  conces- 
sion. He  admitted  that  the  Prince  was  the  most 
suitable  person  to  be  vested  with  the  Regency,  sub- 
ject to  certain  restrictions.  These  restrictions,  even 
before  they  were  formulated,  were  denounced  by  Fox 
as  an  attempt  to  make  the  Prince  refuse  the  Re- 
gency altogether,  by  imposing  humiliating  conditions. 
Pitt  retorted  that  as  the  question  of  "  right "  had 
been  revived  it  was  necessary  to  inquire  thoroughly 
into  the  matter ;  he  appointed  a  committee,  and 
thus  gained  another  two  weeks'  delay.  As  the 
great  Minister  knew,  time  was  all  important. 
Willis,  his  nominee  at  Kew,  had  reported  privately 
to  him  that  the  King's  condition  was  more  favour- 
able, and  that  there  was  a  prospect  that  he  would 
before  long  recover  his  reason.  The  Prince,  not 
wishing  to  be  out-generalled,  and  seeing  that  the 
theory  of  his  "right"  was  being  used  to  play  into 
his  enemies'  hands,  threw  over  Fox,  and  despatched 
the  Duke  of  York  to  the  House  of  Lords  to  disclaim 
it.  The  Duke  did  so  in  an  able  speech,  and  he  was 


24o  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

supported  by  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester ;  but 
these  manoeuvres  had  no  effect,  for  Pitt  had  already 
made  up  his  mind  on  the  course  to  pursue.  On 
December  16  he  introduced  three  resolutions  on  the 
subject  of  the  Regency.  In  the  fierce  debates  that 
followed,  another  three  weeks  of  precious  time  were 
lost.  In  the  end  Pitt's  resolutions  were  carried,  and 
the  Ministers  set  about  preparing  a  Bill.  It  was 
understood  that  the  Prince  was  to  be  offered  the 
Regency,  but  with  such  restrictions  as  Pitt  should 
be  pleased  to  impose. 

The  dissensions  in  the  royal  family  now  rivalled 
those  in  Parliament.  The  Queen  was  wholly  on 
Pitt's  side,  and  ranged  herself  in  active  opposition 
to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  was  supported  by  his 
uncles  and  brothers.  It  was  intimated  that  the 
Queen  had  reconsidered  her  decision,  and  was  pre- 
pared to  accept  the  Regency  with  Pitt's  conditions, 
if  the  Prince  of  Wales  refused  to  accept  them. 
The  Prince  was  hardly  allowed  to  see  his  father 
by  the  Queen,  and  a  bitter  dispute  arose  about  the 
custody  of  the  King's  papers  and  jewels.  "  She  is 
playing  the  devil,"  wrote  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot  to  his 
wife,  "and  has  all  this  time  been  at  the  bottom 
of  the  cabals  and  intrigues  against  the  Prince." 
The  Princes  resented  their  mother's  attitude.  The 
Prince  said,  "In  this  matter  her  Majesty  showed 
a  degree  of  passion  which  I  have  never  witnessed 
or  believed  to  exist  in  her  Majesty  before  ; "  while 
the  Duke  of  York  said  to  her,  "  I  believe,  Madam, 
you  are  as  much  deranged  as  the  King."  Their 
attitude  was  reflected  by  their  friends,  who  spoke  of 
the  Queen  with  disrespect.  For  instance,  we  hear 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE   REGENCY     241 

of  a  supper-party  at  Mrs.  Robert  Walpole's,  at 
which  were  present  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  Duke 
of  York,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  Jack  Payne,  and  others, 
including  oddly  enough  the  Duchess  of  Gordon, 
who  was  an  ardent  Pittite.  Payne,  who  was  in 
high  favour  with  the  Prince,  made  (no  doubt,  in  his 
cups)  some  ribald  allusion  to  the  friendship  between 
Pitt  and  the  Queen,  at  which  the  Prince  laughed 
boisterously ;  but  the  Duchess  exclaimed,  "  You 
little,  insignificant,  good-for-nothing  upstart,  you 
pert,  chattering  puppy,  how  dare  you  name  your 
royal  master's  royal  mother  in  that  style  ! " l 

Behind  all  the  disputes  about  the  Regency, 
never  mentioned  in  official  documents  or  speeches, 
but  lurking  in  all  men's  minds,  was  the  question  of 
the  Prince's  secret  marriage  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 
Fox's  denial  was  now  generally  discredited,  and 
the  country  felt  itself  deceived.  The  old  hatred  of 
Popery  existed  in  the  provinces,  and  it  was  partly 
the  fear  of  the  Prince's  "Papist  wife,"  who  had  so 
great  an  ascendency  over  him,  that  inspired  the  great 
towns  and  country  districts  to  pour  addresses  in  upon 
Pitt  at  this  juncture,  assuring  him  of  their  support. 
These  proofs  of  the  feeling  in  the  country  en- 
couraged the  Prime  Minister  to  hamper  the  Prince's 
power  by  every  possible  restriction,  and  not  to  make 
the  slightest  concession.  The  nation  was  at  Pitt's 
back,  and  was  profoundly  convinced  that  the  Prince 
was  not  fit  to  exercise  the  royal  power  except  under 
stringent  restrictions.  What  those  restrictions  were 
soon  became  apparent.  Early  in  the  New  Year, 

1  "  Lady  Harcourt's  Diary."    Locker  MSS.  in  Massey's  "  History  of 
England." 

VOL.    I.  Q 


242  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

1789,  the  Prince  was  offered  the  Regency,  but  it 
was  shorn  of  most  of  the  privileges  of  sovereignty. 
The  care  of  the  King's  person,  with  the  management 
of  the  Royal  Household,  and  the  appointment  of 
all  officers  and  servants  therein,  were  given  to  the 
Queen.  The  Prince,  as  Regent,  was  to  have  no 
power  to  touch  the  property  of  the  King — that  is, 
Crown  property  ;  no  power  to  grant  offices  or  pen- 
sions connected  therewith,  and  no  power  to  create 
peers.  Well  might  the  Prince  write  that  these  were 
"restrictions  such  as  no  dictator  could  ever  have 
been  barefaced  enough  to  bring  forward."  But  he 
did  not  refuse  the  Regency,  even  with  these  humili- 
ating conditions,  for  he  knew  that  the  Queen  would 
take  the  office  if  he  did  not.  When  therefore  the 
deputation  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament  waited  on 
him  at  Carlton  House,  he  said  he  would  accept  the 
Regency,  "  confident  that  the  limitations  on  the 
exercise  of  the  royal  authority  deemed  necessary 
for  the  present  have  been  approved  only  by  the  two 
Houses  as  a  temporary  measure." 

Then  the  Regency  Bill  was  introduced  into  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  the  fierce  quarrels  began 
all  over  again.  It  fell  to  Burke  to  lead  the  Oppo- 
sition, which  he  did  in  a  series  of  impassioned 
speeches,  declaring  that  the  Bill  was  "not  only  de- 
grading to  the  Prince  but  to  the  whole  House  of 
Brunswick."  Fox  was  absent  from  these  debates 
on  the  plea  of  ill  health.  There  was  another  reason 
also.  Though  Fox  was  outwardly  reconciled  to 
the  Prince,  the  old  confidence  between  them  was 
gone.  Fox  ascribed  this  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
influence,  and  resented  it.  The  Prince  considered 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE   REGENCY      243 

that  Fox  had  made  a  grave  blunder  in  tactics  when 
he  put  forward  the  claim  of  right  on  his  behalf,  and 
had  much  mismanaged  the  whole  business  in  Parlia- 
ment. But  he  dared  not  break  with  him,  though  it 
was  even  whispered  that  the  Prince  was  willing  to 
make  overtures  to  Pitt.  Lord  Buckingham,  writing 
in  the  autumn  to  William  Grenville  on  the  situation, 
repeats  the  rumour  on  good  authority  that  "the 
Prince  was  afraid  of  Fox,  and  his  opinion  of  Mr. 
Pitt  was  very  much  altered  since  the  negotiation  on 
the  subject  of  his  debts,  and  that  he  was  sure  the 
Prince  would  in  case  of  any  accident  send  for  them 
both,  and  endeavour  to  make  his  time  quiet  by  em- 
ploying them  jointly,  and  that  this  coolness  to  F"ox 
was  much  increased  by  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  who  never 
would  forgive  his  public  declaration  on  her  subject 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  had  taken  every 
opportunity  of  alienating  the  Prince's  mind  from 
him."1 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  a  factor  who  could  not 
be  ignored  in  the  Prince's  secret  councils  in  the 
matter  of  the  Regency.  She  took  an  active  part 
in  them,  and  she  won  over  to  her  side  the  Duke 
of  Portland.  "The  Duke"  (of  Portland),  writes 
George  Selwyn  to  Lady  Carlisle,  "  now  sups  every 
night  with  his  Royal  Highness  and  his  brother  at 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert's."2  To  these  little  suppers  Fox 
was  not  invited.  Indeed,  he  found  himself  now 
shut  out  from  the  Prince's  confidence.  If  the  Prince 
became  Regent,  this  confidence  was  absolutely 
necessary  to  Fox  if  he  were  to  form  a  Government. 

1  Fortescue  MSS.     Historical  MSS.  Commission,  vol.  i. 

2  Carlisle  MSS.     Historical  MSS.  Commission,  vol.  iii. 


244  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

In  this  dilemma  it  is  no  wonder  he  sought,  by  every 
means  in  his  power,  to  make  his  peace  with  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert.  But  she  still  maintained  her  hostile 
attitude.  She  refused  to  see  him  or  to  speak  to 
him.  Sir  Philip  Francis  tells  us  that  she  "  abhorred 
Fox,  and  never  would  be  reconciled  to  him,  notwith- 
standing many  advances  and  earnest  submissions  on 
his  part,  of  which  at  his  request  I  was  more  than 
once  a  bearer."  The  quarrel  between  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert and  Fox  was  well  known,  and  the  most 
extraordinary  rumours  flew  about  concerning  the 
terms  he  offered  her  to  effect  a  reconciliation.  Lord 
Harcourt  writes  to  Lady  Harcourt : — 

"  The  first  news  I  heard  in  my  morning  walk  was 
that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  is  to  be  created  a  Duchess. 
This  cannot  be  true ;  for  how  can  the  Regent  make 
a  Peeress,  when  he  is  restricted  from  making  any 
Peers.  It  appears  to  me  to  be  an  absolute  impossi- 
bility. Mr.  Fox  will  probably  now  again  come 
forward  on  the  stage,  but  he  cannot  ever  be  a 
favourite  after  what  has  passed.  After  resisting 
every  effort  that  has  been  made  use  of  to  induce 
him  to  give  up  the  letter  which  authorised  him  to 
make  the  famous  declaration  he  made  in  Parlia- 
ment two  years  ago,  he  says  he  has  lost  it.  This 
is  not  very  likely,  considering  what  a  very  impor- 
tant one  it  was.' 


» i 


1  "  Harcourt  Papers."  The  letter  was  not  lost.  It  must  have 
been  the  letter  which  the  Prince  of  Wales  wrote  in  answer  to  Fox, 
December  n,  1785,  before  his  marriage  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  It  was 
found  among  Fox's  papers  after  his  death,  tied  up  with  his  letter  to 
the  Prince  on  the  subject.  Probably  Fox  did  not  think  it  sufficiently 
strong  to  justify  his  categorical  statement  in  the  House  of  Commons  ; 
perhaps  he  did  not  care  to  betray  the  Prince's  confidence. 


STRUGGLE   FOR   THE   REGENCY     245 

Again  the  Morning  Herald  writes,  December 
15,  1788:— 

"  A  very  extraordinary  circumstance  has  recently 
occurred,  which  will  probably  be  the  means  of  delay- 
ing for  some  time  the  final  and  complete  arrange- 
ment of  the  intended  blue  and  biiff  administration 
(the  colours  of  Fox).  The  impediment  originated 
with  Mr.  Fox ;  and  were  there  not  more  of  popular 
artifice  than  principle  in  it,  it  would  be  more  honour- 
able to  his  character  than  perhaps  any  part  of  his 
conduct  that  had  before  attracted  public  notice. 

"The  memorable  declaration  of  Mr.  Fox,  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  on  the  subject  of  a  marriage 
between  a  certain  Great  Character  and  a  Lady  well 
known  in  the  higher  circles,  cannot  but  be  fresh 
in  the  memory  of  almost  every  individual  in  the 
Kingdom. 

"That  connexion,  on  account  of  the  difference 
in  religious  principles,  appears  to  Mr.  Fox  fraught 
with  probable  mischief  to  his  measures ;  he  has, 
therefore,  declared  his  positive  resolution  not  to 
take  any  part  in  the  intended  new  Ministry,  until 
the  exact  limits  of  that  connexion  are  satisfactorily 
defined,  as  he  has  now  reason  to  believe  that  it  is 
of  a  more  coercive  and  permanent  nature  than  he 
was  once  induced  to  imagine  and  announce. 

"  To  annul  the  grounds  of  Mr.  Fox's  objection, 
no  less  a  sum  than  the  annual  allowance  of  ^20,000 
has  been  offered  to  the  lady,  on  condition  of  her 
retiring  to  the  Continent.  This  the  lady  has  posi- 
tively refused;  expressing  her  firm  determination 
to  abide  by  an  authority  she  is  said  to  hold  forth 
as  unanswerable  and  unalienable. 


246  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

"  A  Character  (the  Duke  of  York),  who  has  lately 
started  forth  into  oratorical  consequence  is  the  nego- 
tiator in  this  important  business,  who,  finding  the 
lady  obstinate,  has  offered,  in  addition  to  the  enor- 
mous income  above  mentioned,  the  rank  of  an 
English  Duchess! 

"  The  lady,  however,  firmly  resists  all  these 
alluring  temptations,  urging  that  she  was  in  cir- 
cumstances entirely  independent  previously  to  her 
being  induced  to  coincide  with  that  condition  from 
which  she  is  resolute  not  to  recede,  as  character  is 
of  much  greater  importance  to  her  than  affluence, 
however  abundant,  if  attended  with  the  deprivation 
of  that  rank  to  which  she  holds  herself  entitled" 

This  article  in  the  Morning  Herald,  which  created 
a  sensation  at  the  moment,  was,  no  doubt,  ill- 
informed  and  exaggerated.  It  probably  arose  from 
something  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  said  about 
Fox,  for  she  made  no  attempt  to  conceal  her  anti- 
pathy, and  freely  and  often  expressed  it.  Fox 
would  have  liked  'to  break  off  the  connection  be- 
tween the  Prince  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  altogether, 
but  he  recognised  that  such  an  attempt  at  this 
juncture  was  foredoomed  to  failure,  and  did  not 
attempt  it.  The  statement,  therefore,  that  he 
offered  her  ,£  20,000  a  year  to  go  into  exile  in 
the  event  of  the  Prince  becoming  Regent  and  he 
Prime  Minister,  may  be  dismissed  as  absurd.  Fox 
knew  her  too  well  to  make  such  an  offer,  but  he 
recognised  the  extent  of  her  influence  over  the 
Prince,  and  perhaps  he  felt  that  he  owed  her  some 
reparation  for  the  wrong  he  had  done  her,  in  part, 
unconsciously  ;  but  whether  he  had  believed  what  he 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE   REGENCY     247 

said  in  the  House  of  Commons  or  not,  there  was 
no  need  for  him  to  have  used  such  coarse  terms. 
The  statement  that  he  offered  her  the  rank  of  a 
duchess  in  the  event  of  his  forming  a  Government 
is  in  part  borne  out  by  Lord  Stourton,  who  in  his 
loosely- worded  narrative  writes,  "  She  went  so  far 
with  respect  to  Mr.  Fox  that  when  afterwards, 
during  his  Administration,1  he  made  some  overtures 
to  recover  her  good  will,  she  refused,  though  the 
attainment  of  the  rank  of  Duchess  was  to  be  the 
fruit  of  their  reconciliation.  In  naming  this  cir- 
cumstance to  me  she  observed  that  she  did  not 
wish  to  be  another  Duchess  of  Kendal." 

This  observation  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  throws  a 
light  on  her  refusal  to  be  created  a  duchess  then, 
and  also  many  years  later,  when  a  similar  offer  was 
made  her  by  William  IV.  The  Duchess  of  Kendal 
was  the  acknowledged  mistress  of  George  I.,  and 
it  was  because  she  was  his  mistress  that  she  was 
elevated  to  the  rank  of  a  duchess.  There  was  no 
question  of  marriage  between  them.  The  German 
Pastor  of  the  Lutheran  Chapel  Royal  refused  her 
the  Sacrament  because,  in  his  view,  she  was  living 
"  in  open  sin."  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  on  the  contrary, 
had  been  married  to  the  Prince,  and  her  Church 
regarded  her  as  his  wife.  She  was  admitted  to 
the  Sacraments  of  her  Church,  which  would  not 
have  been  the  case  had  she  been  his  mistress. 
Her  marriage,  not  merely  the  legality  of  it  (she 
never  claimed  that  it  was  legal),  but  the  fact 

1  This  must  either  mean  Fox's  contemplated  Administration  in 
1789,  in  the  event  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  becoming  Regent — which 
came  to  nothing — or  when  he  became  Foreign  Secretary  in  Lord 
Grenville's  Administration  in  1806. 


24 8  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

in  toto,  had  been  denied  by  Fox  with  gross  com- 
ments, she  had  been  publicly  shamed,  and  she  held 
that  the  stain  could  not  be  wiped  away  short  of  an 
equally  public  apology  and  recantation.  But  when 
Fox  (conditionally,  of  course)  offered  her,  instead, 
the  rank  of  duchess,  she  spurned  it. 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  preferred  to  trust  to  the  Prince, 
who  had  sworn  to  make  her  all  possible  amends  for 
the  public  denial  of  their  marriage  the  moment  he 
had  the  power.  It  looked  now,  with  the  Regency 
almost  within  his  grasp,  that  the  power  would  come. 
But  distrusting  Fox  as  she  did,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
was  profoundly  agitated  by  these  rumours  in  the 
press  and  elsewhere.  She  feared  that  they  masked 
some  secret  design  against  her.  She  sought  the 
Prince  and  demanded  an  explanation.  The  Prince 
freely  denied  all  knowledge  of  them,  renewed  his 
vows  and  entreaties,  and  succeeded  in  pacifying 
her,  as  he  had  often  done  before.  But  with  Fox  she 
would  hold  no  sort  of  communication ;  and  he,  sick 
in  mind  and  body,  smarting  under  the  chagrin  and 
disappointment  caused  by  his  own  tactical  blunder 
in  the  House,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  rebuff  and  the 
Prince's  coldness,  went  down  to  the  country,  and 
on  the  plea  of  illness  absented  himself  from  the 
House  of  Commons  during  the  remaining  debates 
on  the  Regency  Bill.  He  was  ill,  undoubtedly, 
but  that  was  not  the  only  reason  of  his  continued 
absence.  Jealousies  were  rife  among  the  Prince's 
friends.  Sheridan  stood  high  in  the  Prince's  favour 
and  in  that  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  "Charles  Fox," 
writes  one,  "besides  ill-health,  is  plagued  to  death 
all  day  long,  dissatisfied  with  Sheridan's  supremacy, 


MRS.    FITZHERBERT 

(After  an  unfinished  Painting  ly  Sir  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS,  by 
permission  of  Lady  BLANCHE  HAYGARTH) 


STRUGGLE   FOR   THE   REGENCY     249 

and  not  choosing  to  be  questioned  by  Mr.  Rolle, 
who  vows  he  will,  in  spite  of  threats  and  opposition, 
approfondir  that  matter"  [i.e.,  the  marriage  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert].1 

The  irrepressible  Rolle,  who  had  never  believed 
Fox's  denial  at  the  time,  and  who  was  now  con- 
vinced by  the  growing  power  and  influence  of 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  the  confident  assertions  of 
her  friends,  that  he  had  been  tricked,  was  deter- 
mined to  get  to  the  truth.  He  had  announced 
that  he  would  raise  the  question  again  during  the 
debates  on  the  Regency  Bill,  and  he  intended  to 
address  his  questions  to  Fox  himself.  This  Fox 
was  determined  he  should  not  do,  and  so  he  stayed 
away  from  the  House  altogether. 

The  Prince's  party  were  in  a  great  fright  at  the 
prospect  of  his  marriage  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  being 
raised  at  such  an  inconvenient  time,  and  did  all  in 
their  power  to  discount  it  in  advance.  Lord  Har- 
court  writes  to  Lady  Harcourt:2  "I  find  it  is  a 
measure  of  the  party  to  say  that  the  Prince,  from 
his  amiable  character,  retains  a  friendship  for  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert ;  but  that  she  has  not  the  least  remain- 
ing influence ;  that  he  is  quite  tired  of  her,  and  in 
love  elsewhere,  therefore  the  public  need  have  no 
further  alarm  on  her  account."  And  again  :  "  The 
report  of  H.R.H.  being  tired  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
gains  ground.  The  old  Duchess  of  Bedford  said 
at  a  party  she  had  the  other  day,  that  she  knew 
he  could  not  stand  the  unpopularity  occasioned  by 
his  connection  with  a  Catholic,  and  that  he  entreated 

1  "Courts  and  Cabinets  of  George  III."  By  the  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, 1853.  2  "  Harcourt  Papers." 


250  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

her  to  go  to  France  or  anywhere  abroad  and  he 
would  give  her  ;£  10,000  per  annum.  She,  how- 
ever, refused,  saying  she  would  take  her  chance  in 
England.  ...  I  doubt  the  truth  of  this  story." 

These  manoeuvres  were  unsuccessful  in  averting  a 
discussion  in  Parliament.1  Rolle's  opportunity  came 
on  February  7,  1789.  The  Regency  Bill  was  in 
Committee,  and  was  being  discussed  in  a  full  House. 
Presently  the  House  came  to  the  following  clause : — 

"  Provided  also,  and  be  it  enacted  by  the  authority 
aforesaid,  that  if  his  said  Royal  Highness  George 
Augustus  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  shall  not 
continue  to  be  resident  in  Great  Britain,  or  shall  at 
any  time  marry  a  Papist ;  then,  and  in  every  case, 
all  the  powers  and  authorities  vested  in  his  said 
Royal  Highness,  by  virtue  of  the  Act,  shall  cease 
and  determine." 

To  this  Rolle  moved  an  amendment,  to  insert 
after  the  words  or  shall  at  any  time  marry  a  Papist 
the  following  :  or  shall  at  any  time  be  proved  to  be 
married,  in  fact,  or  in  law,  to  a  Papist. 

In  introducing  his  amendment  Mr.  Rolle  said : 
"  That  he  meant  nothing  personal  or  disrespectful, 
nothing  injurious  or  hateful  to  the  feelings  of  any 
individual.  He  spoke  from  the  regard  he  had  to  the 
principles  of  the  Constitution  which  were  the  bul- 
warks of  our  freedom,  and  out  of  veneration  for  the 
House  of  Brunswick,  and  the  wish  to  secure  the  Pro- 
testant succession  in  that  House,  because  that  succes- 
sion would  secure  our  liberties.  .  .  .  Could  he  have 
brought  himself  to  believe  that,  as  the  clause  stood  at 

1  Parliamentary  History,  vol.  xxvii.     Debate  on  the  Regency  Bill, 
1789. 


STRUGGLE   FOR   THE   REGENCY      251 

present,  it  was  sufficiently  strong,  he  would  not  have 
proposed  the  amendment ;  or  if  any  person  would 
step  forward  and  confirm  the  declaration  solemnly 
made  by  a  right  honourable  gentleman  (Mr.  Fox) 
in  that  House  two  years  ago,  he  should  be  satisfied. 
That  declaration  had  satisfied  him  at  the  time,  nor 
did  he  mean  to  impeach  its  credibility,  but  as  doubts 
and  scruples  had  nevertheless  been  still  entertained 
without  doors,  he  wished  them  to  be  effectually 
silenced,  and  that  the  question  might  be  set  at  rest 
for  ever." 

Lord  Belgrave^  who  followed,  blamed  Rolle  for 
casting  doubts  on  Fox's  declaration  that  there  was 
no  truth  in  the  report  that  "an  indissoluble  union 
had  taken  place  with  a  very  amiable  and  respectable 
Character,  whose  religious  opinions  differed  from  the 
religious  opinions  of  the  Established  Church  of  this 
country."  He  contended  that  there  was  no  occasion 
to  discuss  the  validity  of  such  a  rumour  over  again. 

Mr.  Pitt,  on  behalf  of  the  Government,  said  that 
he  could  not  accept  the  amendment,  as  the  Uniformity 
Clause  was  the  same  as  he  had  found  in  former 
Regency  Bills,  and  he  judged  it  sufficient  security. 
He  did  not  wish  to  advert  to  anything  that  had 
formerly  passed  in  the  House. 

The  Attorney-General  also  considered  the  clause, 
as  it  stood,  a  sufficient  legal  security  :  it  had  sufficed 
for  our  ancestors.  The  House  could  not  legislate  on 
rumours,  and  "  with  regard  to  the  particular  rumour 
in  question  he  knew  of  nothing  that  could  warrant 
him  to  believe  it  to  have  any  foundation." 

For  the  information  of  the  Committee  the  clause 
of  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  (12  George  1 1 1.)  was 


252  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

read.  The  Clause  provides  that,  previous  to  the 
marriage  of  the  descendants  of  George  II.  taking 
place  lawfully,  His  Majesty's  (George  1 1 1. 's)  consent 
to  such  a  marriage  must  be  obtained,  and  signified 
under  his  own  sign  manual,  which  consent  must 
have  the  sanction  of  the  Great  Seal,  and  that  all 
marriages  contracted  without  the  royal  consent 
being  so  formally  signified,  were  declared  to  be 
null  and  void,  and  of  no  effect  whatever. 

Mr.  Rolle  said  he  had  heard  it  to  be  the  opinion 
of  some  of  the  first  lawyers  of  this  country  that 
nothing  contained  in  the  Act  just  referred  to  altered 
or  affected  the  clause  in  the  Act  of  William  and 
Mary  which  enacted  that  any  heir  to  the  Crown 
who  married  a  Papist  forfeited  his  right  to  the 
Crown. 

It  was  now  the  turn  of  "the  Prince's  friends." 
Lord  North  said  that  by  perusing  the  Act  which 
had  just  been  read  (the  Royal  Marriage  Act)  it 
would  appear  that  no  marriage  could  be  contracted 
of  the  kind,  respecting  which  they  appeared  to 
have  such  wonderful  apprehensions,  and  therefore 
no  danger  could  arise  to  Church  and  State  in  the 
manner  dreaded.  .  .  .  The  Act  was  in  full  force, 
and  so  it  would  remain  unless  regularly  repealed 
by  some  subsequent  statute.  He  questioned  the 
motives  of  Mr.  Rolle  in  agitating  this  question, 
which  "  could  answer  no  wholesome  purpose  what- 
soever." 

This  brought  up  Mr.  Pitt,  who  severely  rebuked 
Lord  North  for  questioning  the  motives  of  his  hon. 
friend  Mr.  Rolle,  and  "  for  the  levity  with  which  he 
treated  so  serious  a  subject."  At  the  same  time 


STRUGGLE  FOR   THE   REGENCY     253 

he   repeated    that   he   considered   the   amendment 
unnecessary. 

Lord  North  would  not  accept  the  reprimand, 
and  he  declared  that  "the  blame  rested  on  Mr. 
Rolle  for  advancing  the  dangerous  doctrine  of 
questioning  the  validity  of  an  Act  of  Parliament 
regularly  passed  under  all  its  forms  by  the  three 
branches  of  the  legislature." 

Mr.  Sheridan  also  assailed  the  motives  of  Mr. 
Rolle  in  continuing  to  agitate  this  question.  "  The 
hon.  gentleman  says  he  has  his  doubts,  he  does 
not  state  why.  He  has  had  Acts  of  Parliament 
consulted  tending  darkly  to  sustain  those  doubts. 
What  motive  can  he  have  but  to  give  suspicion 
wing  and  disseminate  alarm  ?  Who  has  said 
anything  in  favour  of  those  doubts  ?  It  is  true  a 
pamphlet l  has  been  written  by  an  ingenious  gentle- 
man (Mr.  Home  Tooke),  the  madness  and  folly  of 
which  are  apparent  on  every  page,  and  the  whole 
drift  of  which  betrays  the  author  to  be  a  bad 
citizen,  because  when  he  roundly  asserts  that  he 
seriously  believes  the  fact  he  alludes  to,  to  have 
taken  place,  and  then  resorts  to  no  means  of  eluci- 
dating it,  he  insinuates  what  he  ought  not  to  have 
insinuated,  without  proceeding  to  establish  it  by 
something  at  least  that  bore  the  resemblance  of 
truth." 

Mr.  Grey  said  that  the  only  merited  answer  to 
the  hon.  gentleman  (Mr.  Rolle)  was  the  short 
answer  of  the  Act  of  Parliament  which  had  been 


1  The  allusion  was  to  Home  Tooke's  pamphlet,  already  quoted  : 
"A  Letter  to  a  Friend  on  the  Reported  Marriage  of  His  Royal  High- 
ness the  Prince  of  Wales." 


254  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

read.  Whether  the  hon.  gentleman's  motives  were 
good  or  bad,  he  should  leave  others  to  determine ; 
but  he  did  suspect  they  were  not  good,  because  they 
tended  to  involve  the  country  in  disunion,  alarm, 
and  distrust.  He  reprobated  the  rumours  alluded 
to  as  false,  libellous,  and  calumniatory,1  tending  to 
create  in  the  minds  of  the  public,  at  a  most  critical 
moment,  suspicions  equally  derogatory  to  the  Prince 
of  Wales  and  dangerous  to  the  general  welfare  of 
the  public. 

Mr.  D-iindas*  (Treasurer  of  the  Navy)  said: 
"  When  he  heard  that  a  recent  Act  of  Parliament 
was  the  only  reply  fit  to  be  given  to  questions  of 
the  deepest  importance,  he  could  not  admit  that  a 
matter  of  such  magnitude  should  rest  on  such  a 
point,  nor  would  he  agree  that  the  effect  of  the  Act 
of  Settlement  was  virtually  done  away  by  a  posterior 
Act,  which  did  not  specifically  repeat  the  clause  in 
a  Statute,  in  which  the  constitution  and  the  country 
were  so  deeply  interested,  as  the  Act  of  William 
and  Mary.  As  little  was  he  willing  to  submit  that 
the  rumour  alluded  to  was  a  question  rather  to 
be  laughed  at  than  argued.  So  to  say  was  surely 
paying  a  bad  compliment  to  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
and  resting  his  cause  on  a  weak  and  loose  founda- 
tion. He  was  ready  to  say  that  he  disbelieved  the 

1  Grey  in  private  life  was  a  man  of  high  honour,  yet  he  must  have 
known  that  he  was  deliberately  uttering  a  falsehood,  for  by  his  own 
statement  he  was  one  of  those  to  whom  the  Prince  had  admitted  the 
fact  of  his  marriage,  when  he  wished   that  Fox's  denial  should  be 
softened  in  the  House  of  Commons.     Grey  had  refused  to  do  this, 
and  Sheridan  had  undertaken  it ;   but  that  does  not  excuse  Grey's 
conduct  on  this  occasion  in  deliberately  misleading  the  House  of 
Commons. 

2  Henry  Dundas,  first  Viscount  Melville  (1742-1811). 


STRUGGLE   FOR   THE   REGENCY      255 

rumour  for  other  and  he  conceived  better  reasons.1 
He  lamented  a  thousand,  and  a  thousand,  times 
the  absence  of  the  right  hon.  gentleman  (Mr.  Fox) 
who  had  made  that  declaration  two  sessions  ago 
which  had  decided  his  (Mr.  Dundas's)  opinion  at 
the  time,  and  had  since  continued  to  preserve  it 
fixed  and  unmoved ;  more  especially  did  he  regret 
the  cause  of  his  absence  (illness).  He  wished  for 
the  right  hon.  gentleman's  presence  because  he 
entertained  so  high  an  opinion  of  his  sincerity  that 
he  was  confident  he  would  have  come  down  to  the 
House  at  the  risk  of  his  life  to  have  stated  his 
sentiments  on  the  motion  of  the  hon.  gentleman 
(Mr.  Rolle)  if  any  point  had  occurred  to  have  in- 
duced him  to  alter  the  opinion  he  had  entertained, 
when  the  subject  had  been  brought  under  dis- 
cussion on  a  former  occasion.  On  that  opinion, 
solemnly  delivered  as  it  had  been  in  that  House, 
he  perfectly  relied,  and  therefore  he  was  ready  to 
say  he  did  not  give  the  smallest  credit  to  the 
rumour  which  had  been  so  often  referred  to  in  the 
course  of  debate.  The  hon.  gentleman  on  the 
other  side  (Mr.  Grey)  seemed  anxious  to  provoke 
a  discussion  on  the  whole  subject ;  he  for  one 
should  feel  no  delicacy  in  the  world,  but  for  a 
single  consideration,  and  that  was  because  two 
Persons  must  necessarily  be  made  the  objects  of 
the  discussion.  With  regard  to  one  of  the  high 
and  respectable  Personages  alluded  to  (the  Prince 
of  Wales)  he  certainly  should  feel  but  little  difficulty, 

1  Dundas's  speech  was  really  an  elaborate  sarcasm  :  he  wished  to 
fix  the  responsibility  for  the  denial  of  the  marriage  on  Fox  and  the 
Prince's  friends,  and  he  knew  perfectly  well  that  Fox  wished  to 
avoid  Rolle. 


256  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

although  no  man  felt  more  respect  for  that  Exalted 
Personage  than  himself;  but  with  regard  to  the 
other  amiable  Character  (Mrs.  Fitzherbert)  he 
confessed  that  when  the  Sex  came  into  question 
in  that  House,  he  knew  not  how  to  agitate  a 
subject  of  such  delicacy.  He  therefore  wished, 
at  all  times,  to  shut  the  door  upon  such  discus- 
sions." Mr.  Dundas  then  rebuked  Mr.  Grey  for 
impugning  the  motives  of  Mr.  Rolle,  "and  con- 
cluded by  hinting  to  Mr.  Grey  that  it  would  have 
shown  more  prudence,  and  have  better  served  the 
cause  on  the  behalf  of  which  he  had  exercised  his 
zeal,  if  he  had  restrained  that  zeal,  and  taken  no 
part  in  the  debate  of  the  day." 

This  taunt  brought  up  Grey  again,  who  said, 
"  That  so  far  from  feeling  regret  for  the  manner 
in  which  he  had  delivered  his  sentiments,  he  was 
happy  at  having  delivered  his  opinion,  since  it  had 
drawn  from  the  two  right  hon.  gentlemen  (Mr.  Pitt 
and  Mr.  Dundas)  express  declarations  that  they 
neither  of  them  believed  the  reports  so  often  alluded 
to  in  the  course  of  the  debate.  He  repeated  his 
reprobation  of  those  reports  as  false,  libellous,  and 
calumnious."  With  reference  to  the  absence  of  Mr. 
Fox,  he  assured  the  Committee  "that  it  was  due  to 
the  character  of  his  right  hon.  friend  to  declare  that 
no  consideration  of  health,  or  any  other  circum- 
stance, would  have  prevented  his  attendance  in  his 
place  if  he  had  not,  at  the  moment,  been  fully 
satisfied  that  what  he  had  asserted  on  a  former 
occasion  was  strictly  true.  Had  the  case  been 
otherwise,  his  right  hon.  friend  would  have  been 
present  even  at  the  risk  of  his  life." 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE   REGENCY     257 

The  amendment  was  then  negatived,  without  a 
division,  and  the  House  proceeded  to  debate  the 
clause  which  restrained  the  Prince  Regent  from 
creating  peers. 

Thus  for  the  second  time  was  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
marriage  publicly  denied  in  Parliament,  and  on  this 
occasion  by  men  like  Grey  and  Sheridan,  who,  if 
they  did  not  know  the  full  facts  of  the  case,  knew 
for  certain  that  a  ceremony  of  marriage  had  taken 
place.  Well  might  the  unhappy  woman  exclaim, 
"Save  me  from  my  friends!"  She  was  doubly 
forsworn. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  follow  the  debates  on  the 
Regency  Bill.  They  continued  to  be  marked  by 
the  greatest  passion  and  prejudice  on  both  sides. 
Burke,  who  led  the  opposition,  excelled  himself  in 
invective.  Fox  sulked  in  retirement.  The  excite- 
ment was  equally  great  outside  the  walls  of  Parlia- 
ment. The  fashionable  world  of  London  was 
divided  into  two  hostile  factions.  The  Duchess  of 
Devonshire  gave  parties  on  the  Whig  side,  and  the 
Duchess  of  Gordon  on  the  Tory ;  the  ladies  being 
even  more  excited  than  the  men.  At  balls  and 
parties  given  by  the  Prince's  friends,  the  ladies 
appeared  wearing  u  Regency  caps,"  while  at  the 
Tory  houses  the  ladies  adorned  themselves  with 
ribbons  inscribed,  "  God  save  the  King."  These 
were  wound  round  their  arms  or  entwined  in  their 
hair.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  threw  herself  into  the  fray 
con  amore,  and  worked  early  and  late  for  the  Prince. 
Her  house  was  used  as  a  meeting-place  for  his 
friends ;  she  encouraged  the  wavering  and  cajoled 
the  doubtful.  Her  future  destiny  at  this  time  was 

VOL.    I.  R 


25 8  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

an  object  of  general  curiosity.  In  the  event  of  the 
Regency  what  would  she  become  ?  There  seemed 
no  limit  to  her  possibilities,  and  she  was  generally 
regarded  as  the  leader  of  the  family  struggle  on  the 
one  side,  and  the  Queen  the  leader  on  the  other. 
The  struggle  for  the  Regency  is  the  only  instance 
of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  direct  interference  in  politics, 
though  this  was  a  personal  matter  rather  than  a 
political  one  with  her.  There  were  those  who  held 
that  her  advocacy  did  more  harm  than  good. 

Among  the  Prince's  own  followers  the  near 
prospect  of  place  and  power  had  a  demoralising 
effect.  There  were  many  jealousies  and  intrigues. 
The  Prince  entertained  his  friends  sumptuously 
every  day,  and  was  lavish  in  his  promises.  His 
uncle  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  was  promised  the 
Garter,  until  now  refused  him  by  the  King ;  his 
brother  the  Duke  of  York  was  to  become  Com- 
mander-in-Chief,  Fox  was  to  be  Prime  Minister, 
Sheridan  Treasurer  for  the  Navy,  and  so  on.  All 
the  smaller  fry  of  place-hunters  and  parasites,  such 
as  Jack  Payne,  were  to  be  provided  for  in  some 
way  or  other.  This  hungry  crew  was  keenly 
affected  by  the  restriction  which  gave  to  the  Queen 
the  household  appointments,  for  no  less  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  places  were  thus  lost  to  them. 
But  this  restriction  was  regarded  as  only  temporary. 

Thus  did  the  Prince  and  his  friends  occupy  them- 
selves until  the  middle  of  February  1789.  It  was 
hoped  that  the  Prince  would  be  in  possession  of 
the  Regency  by  the  i4th  February.  Alas  for  the 
mutability  of  human  hopes !  Just  at  the  moment, 
when  power  and  place  seemed  at  last  within  their 


STRUGGLE  FOR   THE   REGENCY      259 

grasp,  rumours  came  that  the  King  was  recovering 
his  reason.  These  rumours  gained  in  strength  day 
by  day.  On  the  iQth  February,  when  the  Regency 
Bill  was  under  discussion  in  the  Lords,  the  Lord 
Chancellor  stood  up  and  said  it  would  be  "  indecent," 
in  the  improved  state  of  the  King's  health,  to 
proceed  further  with  the  measure,  and  the  House 
adjourned  for  a  week.  By  that  time  the  King  was 
so  much  better  that  the  bulletins  were  discontinued. 
On  February  27,  the  Prince  received  an  address 
from  the  Irish  Parliament,  who  prayed  him  to  take 
the  Regency  of  Ireland  without  any  restrictions. 
Though  bitterness  and  disappointment  must  have 
been  in  his  heart,  the  Prince  received  the  deputation 
with  great  aplomb,  and  entertained  them  after  at  a 
magnificent  banquet,  and  in  his  speech  spoke  of 
"the  happy  event  of  the  King's  recovery." 

On  the  very  day  the  Regency  Bill  was  to  have 
been  passed  into  law  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  the 
Duke  of  York  were  summoned  down  to  Kew,  and 
had  the  felicity  of  being  received  by  the  King,  and 
allowed  to  offer  him  congratulations  on  his  recovery. 
The  King  now  grew  better  daily,  and  on  April  23, 
his  recovery  being  considered  complete,  he  attended 
St.  Paul's  in  state,  accompanied  by  all  his  family, 
and  returned  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  the  mercies 
vouchsafed  to  him. 

Thus  vanished  the  Prince's  hopes  of  the  Regency  ; 
thus  went  also  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  dream  of  a  public 
reparation,  for  when  the  Regency  question  was  re- 
vived twenty  years  later,  her  position  with  regard 
to  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  altogether  different. 
Public  feeling  found  expression  in  the  inevitable 


260  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

cartoons.  On  April  29  appeared  one  entitled, 
"  The  Funeral  Procession  of  Miss  Regency."  On 
the  coffin  rest  a  Prince's  coronet,  a  dice-box,  and 
an  empty  purse.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  acts  as  Chief 
Mourner,  overcome  with  grief  at  the  loss  of  her 
prospects.  Fox  and  Sheridan  follow,  and  several 
members  of  the  Prince's  household  act  as  mutes, 
including  Weltje,  who  sings — 

"  Vor  by  Got  ve  do  pine,  and  in  sadness  ve  link 
Dat  it's  long  till  de  Prince  vear  de  Crown." 


CHAPTER   XIV 

FAMILY   QUARRELS 
(1789—1791) 

THE  quarrel  between  Queen  Charlotte  and  the 
Prince  of  Wales  did  not  end  with  the  King's  re- 
covery ;  it  was  prolonged  for  more  than  a  year. 
In  this  family  dispute  the  Queen  does  not  appear  in 
an  amiable  light.  She  inflamed  the  King's  mind 
against  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  the  Duke  of  York, 
with  stories  of  their  misconduct  during  the  struggle 
for  the  Regency.  She  put  the  worst  construction 
on  their  actions  and  motives,  and  did  all  in  her 
power  to  prevent  them  from  having  free  access  to 
their  father.  Scenes  were  frequent  between  the 
Queen  and  her  sons.  "  The  Prince  of  Wales,"  writes 
Sir  George  Elliot  soon  after  the  King's  recovery, 
"  has  had  a  smart  tussle  with  the  Queen,  in  which 
they  came  to  strong  and  open  declarations  of 
hostility.  He  told  her  that  she  had  connected 
herself  with  his  enemies,  and  had  entered  into  plans 
for  destroying  and  disgracing  him  and  all  her  chil- 
dren, and  that  she  had  countenanced  misrepresen- 
tations of  his  conduct  to  the  King  and  prevented  the 
explanations  which  he  wished  to  give.  She  was 
violent  and  lost  her  temper."1 

to  celebrate  the  King's  recovery  was  given 


1  "  Sir  G.  Elliot's  Life  and  Letters.' 
261 


262  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

at  Windsor,  and  by  the  Queen's  arrangement  it  was 
converted  into  a  party  demonstration.  All  the 
ladies  of  the  Court  wore  Garter  blue,  the  Tory 
colour,  and  political  allusions  were  frequent  in  the 
musical  part  of  the  programme  ;  even  the  sweetmeats 
at  supper  were  adorned  with  political  mottoes  and 
devices. 

The  Prince  of  Wales  and  his  brothers  were 
present,  not  choosing  to  be  absent,  though  the 
Queen  had  given  them  a  strong  hint  to  keep  away. 
She  told  the  Duke  of  York  beforehand  that  the 
party  was  given  only  for  the  "  Ministers  and  those 
persons  in  Parliament  who  have  voted  for  the  King 
and  me"  The  King  was  courteous  to  his  sons,  but 
the  Queen  was  very  "  sour  and  glum  "  because  the 
King  spoke  to  them  at  all.  The  Princes  seem  to 
have  vented  their  ill-humour  on  the  unoffending 
Princesses,  their  sisters,  so  altogether  it  cannot  have 
been  a  pleasant  party. 

The  dispute  between  the  Queen  and  her  sons 
went  from  bad  to  worse,  until  at  last  it  culminated  in 
a  duel  fought  between  the  representatives  of  the 
contending  factions  ;  the  Duke  of  York  represent- 
ing the  Prince  of  Wales' s  side,  and  Colonel  Lenox 
figuring  as  the  champion  of  the  Queen  and  the 
Court.  Lenox's  mother  held  a  place  in  the 
Queen's  household,  and  he  himself  was  in  high 
favour  with  Her  Majesty.  He  had  gone  about 
everywhere  publicly  abusing  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  the  Duke  of  York.  Of  course  his  remarks  were 
repeated  to  the  royal  brothers,  and  they  resented 
them,  for  they  knew  by  whom  they  were  inspired. 
A  quarrel  was  picked  on  some  trifling  pretext,  and 


< 
u 
fc 

w 

O1 


FAMILY   QUARRELS  263 

Lenox  sent  a  challenge  to  the  Duke  of  York,  who 
accepted  it.  The  duel  was  fought  on  Wimbledon 
Common ;  Lenox's  second  was  a  lord  of  the  King's 
bedchamber.  Lenox  fired  and  the  ball  grazed  the 
Duke's  ear ;  the  Duke  did  not  fire,  and  as  he  refused 
to  do  so  the  duel  came  to  an  ignominious  end. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  went  down  to  Windsor  after 
the  duel,  determined  to  tell  the  King  the  whole 
affair,  but  the  Queen  took  care  that  he  should  not 
see  him  alone.  The  King,  who  had  heard  nothing 
about  the  duel,  was  greatly  agitated  at  the  danger 
to  which  his  favourite  son  had  been  exposed,  but 
the  Queen,  who  was  present  all  the  time,  heard  the 
Prince's  story  unmoved,  and  her  only  comment  at 
the  end,  was  to  say  that  it  was  "all  the  Duke  of 
York's  own  fault."  When,  a  few  days  later,  the 
Duke  came  to  see  his  father,  she  made  not  the 
slightest  allusion  to  the  duel.  Her  sympathies 
were,  of  course,  with  her  self-constituted  champion  ; 
a  few  weeks  later  she  marked  this  publicly  at  the 
King's  birthday  ball  at  St.  James's.  Colonel  Lenox 
was  invited  at  the  Queen's  instance,  and  danced 
in  the  same  country  dance  as  the  royal  brothers. 
The  Prince  of  Wales,  when  he  saw  him,  stopped 
dancing  abruptly,  and  led  his  partner  out  of  the 
dance.  The  Queen  asked  the  Prince,  "Was  he 
tired  ? "  and  on  his  answering  in  the  negative,  she 
supposed  "he  thought  it  too  hot."  The  Prince 
retorted  angrily  that  "  in  such  company  it  was 
impossible  not  to  find  it  too  hot."  The  Queen 
then,  no  doubt  fearing  a  scene,  gave  the  signal 
for  retiring,  and  broke  up  the  ball. 

The  King  was  not  present.     He  was  still  an  in- 


264  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

valid.  Had  he  been  in  his  usual  health  none  of 
these  scenes  would  have  happened,  but  for  many 
months  after  his  so-called  recovery,  though  pro- 
nounced to  be  sane  by  his  physicians,  he  was  weak 
and  feeble,  both  in  mind  and  body,  and  did  every- 
thing under  the  influence,  or  the  compulsion,  of  the 
Queen.  The  Queen  guarded  him  jealously  from 
any  outside  interference ;  she  put  herself  at  the 
head  of  a  faction,  and  deliberately  sought  to  place 
the  Prince  of  Wales's  conduct  in  the  worst  light. 
Her  motive  was  obvious ;  she  knew,  none  better, 
the  precarious  state  of  the  King's  health.  It  was 
thought  probable  that  he  would  have  a  relapse,  and 
the  Queen  was  determined  not  to  make  again  the 
mistake  she  had  made  in  the  last  crisis — in  not  at 
once  securing  all  the  power  at  her  command. 

Her  conduct  was  not  allowed  to  pass  without 
protest.  The  Prince  of  Wales  addressed  endless 
remonstrances  to  the  King,  excusing  himself,  and 
complaining  bitterly  of  his  mother.  All  these 
letters  the  King  either  ignored,  or  he  replied 
through  the  Queen  that  he  "proposed  avoiding  all 
discussions  that  may  in  their  nature  agitate  him." 
The  victory  of  the  Queen  was  complete. 

All  this  had  the  worst  possible  effect  on  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  The  disappointment  of  the 
Regency  had  been  a  heavy  blow  to  him,  and 
followed  as  it  was  by  the  boycott  of  the  court,  it 
drove  him  into  a  state,  first  of  anger,  and  then  of 
indifference.  His  father  would  not  listen  to  him, 
his  mother  intrigued  against  him,  whatever  he  did 
was  wrong,  and  if  he  did  nothing  that  was  wrong 
also.  Every  shred  of  power  was  jealously  kept 


FAMILY   QUARRELS  265 

from  him,  every  opportunity  of  public  usefulness 
was  denied  to  him.  The  position  of  heir-apparent 
is  always  a  difficult  one  ;  it  was  never  more  difficult 
than  in  the  case  of  George,  Prince  of  Wales. 
Nearly  every  legitimate  outlet  for  his  abilities  was 
refused  him,  and  he  was  driven  back  upon  himself, 
and  forced  to  dissipate  his  energies  upon  a  barren 
round  of  pleasure.  Of  a  naturally  sanguine  tem- 
perament, this  attitude  of  distrust  and  hatred  on 
the  part  of  his  parents  chilled  and  depressed  him. 
His  was  a  nature  which  needed  appreciation  and 
encouragement. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  to  represent  the  life  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales  (afterwards  George  IV.),  from 
his  earliest  years  until  his  death,  as  one  long  round 
of  self-indulgence  and  pleasure,  with  no  attempt  on 
his  part  of  reformation,  or  of  striving  for  higher 
things ;  yet  of  his  early  manhood,  at  least,  this 
view  is  a  false  and  malicious  one.  For  four  years, 
from  the  period  of  his  marriage  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
until  the  disappointment  of  the  Regency,  the  Prince 
had  honestly  striven  to  render  himself  worthier  of 
the  high  position  to  which  he  was  called.  He  had 
retrenched  his  expenditure,  he  had  striven  to  pay 
his  debts,  he  had  reformed  his  manner  of  living, 
he  drank  less,  gambled  less.  He  was  less  wild  in 
his  conduct,  less  free  in  his  conversation,  and  he 
had  avoided  the  wildest  of  his  companions.  There 
were  occasional  lapses,  but,  for  four  years  he  made 
great  efforts  to  reform.  That  much  of  this  was 
due  to  the  good  influence  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  is 
of  course  true ;  much  also  was  due  to  himself,  for 
his  temptations  were  infinitely  greater  than  those 


266  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

who  so  readily  condemn  him  can  have  any  idea. 
It  is  probable  that,  had  the  Regency  been  given 
him  at  this  period  of  his  life,  he  might,  with  his 
undoubted  abilities,  have  done  something  worthy 
of  his  name,  but  just  when  the  power  was  within 
his  grasp  it  was  snatched  from  him.  This  dis- 
appointment, followed  as  it  was  by  the  triumph  of 
his  enemies  and  the  hatred  of  the  court,  embit- 
tered and  discouraged  him.  He  was  once  more 
reduced  to  a  condition  of  impotence,  and  driven  back 
upon  himself.  Is  it  any  wonder,  under  the  circum- 
stances, that  a  man  of  his  inherited  temperament 
should  in  disgust  yield  to  the  overwhelming  tempta- 
tions that  surrounded  him  on  every  side?  It  was 
all  so  fatally  easy.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  still  tried  her 
best  to  moderate  his  tendencies,  but  the  satyr  voices 
called  so  loudly  to  him,  that  even  she  pleaded  to 
deaf  ears.  He  was  still  devoted  to  her,  but  not 
enough  to  make  him  break  from  his  pleasures. 
Perhaps  she  too  was  discouraged  and  disappointed 
at  the  unexpected  turn  of  events,  and  lost  for  the 
time  something  of  her  belief  in  herself,  and  in  her 
power  to  lead  the  Prince. 

The  summer  of  1790  found  the  Prince  and  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  again  at  Brighton,  which  under  the 
Prince's  influence  became  transformed  into  a  veri- 
table city  of  pleasure.  This  year  life  at  Brighton 
was  merrier  than  ever.  The  Prince  strove  to  forget 
his  disappointment ;  he,  let  himself  go,  and  was 
surrounded  by  all  the  wildest  spirits  among  his 
friends.  From  morning  till  night  nothing  was 
thought  of  but  pleasure,  and  pleasure  of  the  most 
reckless  kind. 


FAMILY  QUARRELS  267 

Among  his  chosen  friends  were  the  notorious 
Barrymore  family,  a  merry,  reckless  crew.  Of 
these  the  eldest  was  Richard  Barry,  seventh 
Lord  Barrymore,  who  had  not  long  come  of  age, 
and  was  in  the  enjoyment  of  ,£20,000  a  year,  a 
fortune  which  he  was  rapidly  dissipating.  This 
young  rake-hell  was  a  boon  companion  of  the 
Prince,  and  he  was  an  extraordinary  combination  of 
the  most  opposite  qualities.  "  His  Lordship,"  we 
are  told,  "alternated  between  a  gentleman  and  a 
blackguard ;  the  refined  wit  and  the  most  vulgar 
bully,  he  was  equally  well  known  in  St.  Giles's  or 
St.  James's.  He  could  fence,  dance,  drive,  or  drink, 
box  or  bet,  with  any  man  in  the  kingdom.  He 
could  discourse  slang  as  trippingly  as  French,  relish 
porter  after  port,  and  compliment  her  ladyship  at 
a  ball  with  as  much  ease  and  brilliance  as  he 
could  bespatter  blood  in  a  cider  cellar." 1  He  was 
generous  to  prodigality,  and  always  independent  of 
prejudice ;  notwithstanding  his  wit  he  was  so  foul- 
mouthed  that  he  gained  the  nickname  of  "  Hell- 
gate."  He  died  in  1793,  three  years  after  the  date 
of  which  we  write,  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-four, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  Henry  Barry, 
who,  being  lame,  was  known  as  "  Cripplegate." 
He,  though  as  vicious  as  his  brother,  had  neither 
his  parts  nor  his  bonhomie.  To  him  belongs 
the  honour  of  having  invented  the  "  Tiger "  or 
smart  juvenile  groom.  There  was  another  brother, 
Augustus  Barry,  in  holy  orders  of  the  Church  of 
Ireland,  a  most  inveterate  gambler,  always  in  debt 
and  in  danger  of  the  sponging  -  house,  who  on 

1  "  Reminiscences  of  Henry  Angelo."     London,  1830. 


268  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

this  account  was  dubbed  "  Newgate."  "  Neither 
the  Church  nor  the  nobility  derived  much  advantage 
from  his  being  a  member,"  says  one  of  his  contem- 
poraries, and  we  can  well  believe  it.  He  too  was 
a  combination  of  the  polished  gentleman  and  the 
perfect  blackguard.  To  this  worthy  trio  of  brothers 
was  added  a  sister  (afterwards  Lady  Melfort),  who 
from  the  shrewishness  of  her  temper  and  the 
violence  of  her  language  was  nicknamed  "  Billings- 
gate." The  Barry  mores,  despite  their  vices  and 
follies,  were  the  most  capital  company.  They  said 
whatever  came  into  their  mind,  their  wit  was  always 
ready,  and  their  spirits  never  flagged. 

The  merry  recklessness  of  the  Irish  temperament 
had  a  great  attraction  for  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and 
indeed  bore  a  peculiar  affinity  to  his  own  character. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  he  was  still  a  young  man, 
not  yet  thirty,  full  of  spirits,  and  the  charm  of  youth. 
Besides  the  Barrymores,  Sheridan  and  Burke  were 
Irishmen.  So  was  Colonel  George  Hanger  (after- 
wards Lord  Coleraine),  an  eccentric  character,  who 
for  years  was  the  almost  inseparable  companion  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  He  had  entered  a  Hessian 
regiment,  and  served  in  his  corps  throughout  the 
war  in  America.  When  he  came  back  to  London 
he  attached  himself  to  the  Prince,  who  had  then 
just  come  upon  the  town,  and  was  given  an  appoint- 
ment as  equerry.  He  figured  in  many  of  Gillray's 
cartoons ;  his  eccentricity  was  marked  in  his  fan- 
tastic dress  and  free,  manners,  and  it  showed  itself 
in  later  life,  when  he  became  Lord  Coleraine,  by 
refusing  to  acknowledge  his  title,  and  considering 
himself  insulted  if  addressed  by  it.  Like  many  of 


FAMILY   QUARRELS  269 

the  Prince's  friends  he  had  a  strain  of  ability ;  he 
dabbled  in  literature,  and  was  said  to  be  the  author 
of  the  ballad,  "  Kitty  of  Coleraine."  We  must 
also  not  forget  Felix  McCarthy,  one  of  Lord 
Barrymore's  gang  of  "bruisers"  who  followed  him 
to  Brighton.  McCarthy  was  a  handsome,  impe- 
cunious young  Irishman  of  gentle  birth,  known  as 
the  "  Irish  Giant,"  a  favourite  with  the  Prince,  who 
often  helped  him,  for  he  was  in  chronic  difficulties 
about  money.  To  these  must  be  added  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert's  brothers,  Jack  and  Watt  Smythe,  who 
also  had  a  strain  of  Irish  blood  in  their  veins. 
They  were  at  this  time  constant  companions  of  the 
Prince,  and  ready  to  do  anything  for  him.  These 
youths  quite  lost  their  heads  in  the  company 
where  they  now  found  themselves.  They  were  wild, 
and  always  in  want  of  money,  yet  it  is  characteristic 
of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  that  she  consistently  refused  to 
use  her  influence  with  the  Prince  to  procure  any 
place  or  sinecure  for  her  brothers.  She  preferred 
to  help  them  out  of  her  own  pocket,  a  privilege  of 
which  they  liberally  availed  themselves. 

Most  of  these  men  could  plead  youth  as  an 
excuse  for  their  excesses  and  extragavances,  and 
their  follies  were  redeemed  by  many  good  qualities. 
This  cannot  be  said  of  all  the  Prince's  friends,  for 
some  of  them  were  wholly  vicious.  Among  these 
was  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  "  Jockey  of  Norfolk,"  a 
notorious  drunkard  and  glutton,  who  often  posted 
over  from  Arundel  to  Brighton,  and  stayed  a 
few  days,  as  the  Prince's  guest  at  the  Pavilion. 
Another  frequent  visitor  was  the  last  Duke  of 
Queensberry,  familiarly  known  as  "Old  Q.,"  one 


270  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

of  the  wickedest  of  wicked  old  men,  who  in  his 
youth  had  been  a  member  of  the  "  Hell  Fire 
Club,"  and  in  his  old  age  cared  for  nothing  in 
heaven  or  on  earth.  Of  him  it  was  written  : — 

"  And  there,  insatiate  yet  with  folly's  sport, 
That  polished,  sin-worn  fragment  of  the  Court, 
The  shade  of  Queen  sb'ry  should  with  Clermont  meet 
Ogling  and  hobbling  down  St.  James's  Street." 

Another  kabitzit  was  Sir  John  Lade,  the  cele- 
brated whip,  who  had  taught  the  Prince  driving, 
besides  many  other  things  that  he  ought  not  to  have 
taught  him.  He  was  the  king  of  the  stables,  and 
the  familiar  friend  of  grooms,  jockeys,  and  touts. 
His  wife  was  the  Amazonian  Letitia,  who  created 
a  sensation  by  riding  astride  on  horseback ;  she 
looked  like  Diana,  and  she  drove  a  curricle  and 
four  with  supreme  skill,  handling  the  reins  even 
better  than  her  husband.  Her  origin  was  of  the 
lowest.  Rumours  said  that  she  had  lived  in  St. 
Giles's  as  the  mistress  of  "  Sixteen-String  Jack,"  a 
highwayman  who  was  hanged  in  1774.  She  then 
married  Sir  John  Lade,  who  had  a  place  in  Sussex, 
and  thus  came  to  Brighton.  The  Prince,  who 
loved  horses  and  everything  to  do  with  them,  found 
the  Lades  congenial  spirits.  We  must  not  forget 
to  mention  also  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  was 
often  at  Brighton  during  his  frequent  visits  to 
England.  He  professed  Liberal  principles,  and  was 
known  as  Monsieur  1'Egalite,  but  he  was  really  a 
man  of  no  principles  at  all ;  his  public  morality 
was  on  a  par  with  his  private  conduct.  He  was  a 
familiar  figure  on  the  Steine,  and  generally  appeared 


FAMILY   QUARRELS  271 

in  a  bottle-green  coat,  which  contrasted  violently 
with  his  inflamed  and  scorbutic  countenance. 

It  was  a  gay  summer  at  Brighton ;  the  Prince 
kept  his  birthday  there  with  great  festivities.  Oxen 
were  roasted  whole,  and  the  town  was  illuminated. 
No  compliments  passed  between  the  King  and  his 
son  on  this  occasion,  though  the  court  was  sojourn- 
ing at  Weymouth  for  the  benefit  of  the  King's 
health.  The  Prince  of  Wales  sent  the  Duke  of 
York  to  see  his  father,  but  he  would  not  go  himself, 
or  interrupt  for  one  day  his  round  of  pleasure  at' 
Brighton.  Many  families  of  distinction  had  come 
to  sojourn  there,  and  lovely  ladies  of  noble  birth 
lent  a  grace  to  the  Prince's  parties.  Among 
them  was  the  witty  and  fascinating  Lady  Clare, 
an  Irish  lady  who  was  a  great  friend  of  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert,  and  the  stately  though  gay  Mary  Isabella, 
Duchess  of  Rutland,  now  a  widow,  and  many 
more. 

The  Prince  went  to  Lewes  Races  this  year  in 
semi-state,  and  was  received  by  the  high  sheriff  of 
the  county,  attended  by  a  company  of  javelin  men. 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  the  Duchess  of  Rutland,  and 
Lady  Lade,  also  drove  to  the  races,  each  in  a 
separate  carriage,  and  each  drawn  by  four  grey 
ponies.  Lady  Lade,  one  would  think,  was  hardly 
fit  company  for  the  other  ladies,  but  the  Prince's  set 
was  nothing  if  not  "  mixed."  There  were  theatrical 
performances  at  the  Old  Theatre  in  Duke  Street, 
one  being  given,  "  by  desire  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert," 
by  amateurs,  "for  the  benefit  of  those  persons 
who  had  failed  in  former  attempts."  The  piece 
performed  was  the  Tragedy  of  the  Orphan.  The 


272  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

audience  was  in  shouts  of  laughter  throughout 
the  performance,  and  the  Prince,  we  are  told, 
laughed  so  much  that  he  "nearly  cracked  his 
sides." 

Besides  races  and  theatrical  parties  there  were 
cricket  matches  in  the  Pavilion  grounds,  fencing 
matches,  "  pugilistic  encounters,"  dinner  parties  at 
the  Pavilion  every  night,  and  concerts  and  dances 
every  week.  Everything  went  as  merry  as  a  mar- 
riage bell,  but  the  harmony  was  sometimes  marred 
by  quarrels  among  the  Prince's  friends,  which  not 
infrequently  ended  in  a  little  blood-letting.  Hard 
drinking  and  high  play  were  responsible  for  many 
of  these  quarrels,  and  practical  jokes  for  some  of 
them.  It  was  an  age  of  practical  jokes  ;  the  Prince 
delighted  in  them,  and  the  Barrymore  family  were 
especially  given  to  pranks  of  this  kind.  For  in- 
stance, a  favourite  pastime  of  Lord  Barrymore  and 
his  brothers  was,  as  they  were  posting  in  their  coach 
down  the  road  from  London  to  Brighton,  to  imitate 
the  screams  of  a  woman,  and  cry  out:  "  Murder, 
rape  !  Unhand  me,  villain  !  Let  me  go  !  "  &c. 
Chivalrous  passers-by  would  sometimes  start  in 
pursuit  of  the  coach  and  stop  it  by  force,  only  to 
find  that  it  contained  no  fair  lady  in  distress,  but  in- 
stead Lord  Barrymore  and  his  muscular  "bruisers," 
who  would  jump  out  and  administer  a  sound 
thrashing  to  the  would-be  rescuers.  The  changing 
of  signposts  and  the  fighting  of  waggoners  on  the 
road  were  common  incidents  on  these  journeys. 
One  summer  at  Brighton,  Lord  Barrymore  and  his 
brothers  after  dark  went  about  with  a  coffin.  They 
called  themselves  "the  Merry  Mourners,"  and 


FAMILY   QUARRELS  273 

knocked  at  the  doors  of  peaceable  townsmen, 
frightening  women  and  children.  Nor  were  even 
the  Prince  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  exempt  from  these 
practical  jokes.  On  one  occasion,  Lord  Barry- 
more's  brother,  "  Cripplegate,"  rode  a  horse  up  the 
stairs  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  house — right  up  to  the 
garrets.  But  the  horse  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
go  downstairs  again,  and  had  at  last  to  be  pulled 
down  by  main  force  by  two  blacksmiths.  Henry 
Angelo,  the  fencing-master  and  actor,  relates 
another  anecdote : — "  The  year  after  I  played 
'  Mother  Cole '  at  Brighton,  I  received  an  invi- 
tation from  Lord  Barrymore  to  his  house,  then 
upon  the  Steine.  One  night,  when  the  champagne 
prevented  the  evening  finishing  tranquilly,  Lord 
Barrymore  proposed,  as  there  was  a  guitar  in  the 
house,  that  I  should  play  on  it.  I  was  to  be  the 
musician,  and  he  dressed  in  the  cookmaid's  clothes, 
and  so  to  sing  Ma  chere  Amie.  Accordingly, 
taking  me  to  another  part  of  the  Steine,  under 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  window  (it  was  then  three  o'clock), 
he  sang,  while  I  played  the  accompaniment.  The 
next  day  he  told  me  (quizzing,  I  should  think)  that 
the  Prince  said,  '  Barrymore,  you  may  make  your- 
self a  fool  as  much  as  you  please  ;  but  if  I  had 
known  it  was  Angelo  I  would  have  whipped  him 
into  the  sea.' "  l 

In  those  days  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  merry  too, 
but  many  of  these  wild  doings  were  far  from  her 
liking.  In  vain  would  she  plead  for  moderation.  She 
found  herself  powerless  to  do  much.  The  Prince, 
in  the  morning,  when  he  was  in  a  penitent  mood, 

1  "  Reminiscences  of  Henry  Angelo."    London,  1830. 
VOL.    I.  S 


274  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

would  promise  her  anything  and  everything,  but  in 
the  evening  the  same  revels  would  take  place,  and 
with  the  same  results.  Thomas  Raikes  writes  in 
his  "Journal": — 

"  Few  were  the  happy  hours  that  she  could 
number  even  at  that  period.  He  [the  Prince]  was 
young  and  impetuous  and  boisterous  in  his  char- 
acter, and  very  much  addicted  to  the  pleasures  of 
the  table.  It  was  the  fashion  in  those  days  to 
drink  very  hard,  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  never  retired 
to  rest  until  her  royal  spouse  came  home.  But 
I  have  heard  the  late  Duke  of  York  say,  that, 
often  when  she  heard  the  Prince  and  his  drunken 
companions  on  the  staircase,  she  would  seek  a 
refuge  from  their  presence  even  under  the  sofa, 
when  the  Prince,  finding  the  drawing  -  room 
deserted,  would  draw  his  sword  in  joke,  and 
searching  about  the  room  would  at  last  draw 
forth  the  trembling  victim  from  her  place  of  con- 
cealment." 1 

Apart  from  the  Prince's  extravagances,  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  had  troubles  and  anxieties  of  her  own. 
Some  of  them  she  had  brought  upon  herself.  The 
way  in  which  she  had  departed  from  her  usual  wise 
neutrality,  and  had  thrown  herself  into  the  struggle 
for  the  Regency,  had  aroused  feelings  of  resentment 
against  her  both  at  court  and  in  the  Government. 
The  victorious  party  determined  to  make  her  feel 
the  weight  of  their  displeasure.  Nothing  was  done 
directly,  but  endless  intrigues  were  set  afoot  to 
separate  her  from  the  Prince,  and  to  frighten  her 
into  leaving  the  country.  Rumours  reached  her 

1  "Journal  of  Thomas  Raikes."    London,  1857. 


FAMILY   QUARRELS  275 

that  she  would  be  prosecuted  for  violating  the 
Royal  Marriage  Act,  and  the  penalties  of  pre- 
munire  would  be  directed  against  her.  She  was 
also  threatened  with  imprisonment  for  debt,  and 
this  threat  was  nearly  being  put  into  force,  for  the 
Prince,  through  his  gambling  habits,  was  again 
heavily  embarrassed,  and  even  in  sore  straits  for 
ready  money.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  shared  his  diffi- 
culties, for  she  had  thrown  her  jointure  into  the 
common  stock,  and  the  Prince's  allowance  to  her 
was  irregularly  paid.  To  do  him  justice  the  Prince 
always  came  to  her  aid,  and  raised  the  money 
somehow  ;  but  latterly,  in  some  unaccountable  way, 
his  customary  resources  in  time  of  need  were  closed 
to  him.  One  morning  in  London,  when  he  was  at 
his  wits'  end  for  want  of  money,  a  bailiff  arrived  at 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  house  in  Pall  Mall  and  served  a 
writ  on  her  for  a  debt  of  ^"1835.  The  Prince  of 
Wales  was  in  the  house  at  the  time.  The  debt  had 
not  long  been  owing,  but  the  writ  was  returnable  on 
the  morrow ;  therefore,  if  the  money  were  not  paid 
within  a  few  hours,  the  lady  would  have  to  be  con- 
veyed to  prison.  The  Prince  lost  not  a  moment 
in  applying  to  his  usual  money-lenders;  not  one 
of  them  would  help  him.  It  was  evidently  a  trap. 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  whose  house  was  already  occupied 
by  the  sheriffs  officers,  sent  to  a  well-known  pawn- 
broker, and  tried  to  raise  money  on  her  plate  and 
jewels,  but  here  again  there  was  a  difficulty,  for  the 
bailiffs  refused  to  let  the  articles  go  out  of  the 
house.  At  last  the  Prince  sent  for  his  own  jewels 
from  Carlton  House,  which  were  duly  pledged,  and 
with  the  money  thus  raised  the  debt  was  paid  off, 


276  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  spared  further  indignity.1 
The  jewels  were  redeemed  the  following  day,  for 
the  Prince  meanwhile  raised  some  money  from  a 
Jew  in  St.  Mary  Axe. 

Nor  was  this  all.  A  section  of  the  press  was 
suborned  against  her,  and  simultaneously  there 
appeared  in  many  papers  articles  and  paragraphs 
detrimental  to  her  character,  and  teeming  with 
abuse,  evidently  inspired  by  her  enemies.  As  a  rule 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  always  ignored  these  attacks,  but 
one  pamphlet  in  particular  was  so  scurrilous,  and  so 
categorical  in  its  statements,  that  proceedings  were 
taken  against  the  writer  for  libel,  with  the  result 
that  he  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  ^50,  a  year's 
imprisonment  in  Newgate,  and  to  give  security  for 
his  good  behaviour  for  five  years.  After  this  the 
attacks  upon  her  ceased  for  a  time. 

Thus  matters  went  on  for  two  years,  1789-1790; 
the  court  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  being  at  open  war, 
and  much  dirty  linen  was  washed  on  both  sides. 
This  public  quarrel  between  the  heir-apparent  and 
his  royal  parents  could  not  be  prolonged  without 
causing  much  scandal,  and  it  threatened  to  bring  the 
monarchy  into  disrepute.  On  all  grounds  it  was  to 
be  deprecated.  The  well-wishers  of  the  royal 
family  therefore  strove  to  bring  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion, but  for  a  long  time  without  success.  Lord 
Thurlow,  who  was  the  trusted  friend  of  both  the 
King  and  the  Prince  of  Wales,  did  everything  in  his 
power  to  heal  the  breach  between  them.  Others  were 

1  The  incident  was  not  as 'bad  as  it  sounds,  for  in  those  days  the 
presence  of  bailiffs  in  the  house  was  no  unfrequent  occurrence  in  the 
mansions  of  the  great,  and  was  often  made  the  subject  of  a  joke  by 
those  to  whom  they  paid  their  unwelcome  visits. 


FAMILY   QUARRELS  277 

working  too,  notably  the  Princess  Royal l  and  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  each  of  whom,  from  her  different  stand- 
point, was  unwearied  in  her  endeavours  to  bring 
about  a  truce.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  efforts  in  this 
direction  were  magnanimous,  for  she  had  so  far 
received  no  consideration  from  the  King,  while 
the  Queen  had  shown  herself  decidedly  hostile 
to  her.  In  striving  to  bring  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion, therefore,  she  returned  good  for  evil.  She 
was  even  to  some  extent  working  against  her  own 
interests,  for  the  King  and  Queen  were  anxious  to 
break  off  her  union  with  the  Prince.  But  in  the 
long  run  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  unselfishness  had  its 
reward.  Though  to  the  self-centred  it  might  seem 
that  she  was  ruining  her  prospects,  she  was  all 
unconsciously  to  herself  advancing  them.  Her  con- 
duct on  this,  as  on  subsequent  occasions,  proved 
to  the  King  and  Queen  that  she  was  no  self-seeker 
and  no  intriguer,  and  gradually  their  prejudices 
against  her  were  broken  down. 

The  Prince  of  Wales  was  formally  reconciled  to 
the  King  in  March  1791.  The  price  demanded  of 
him  for  the  paternal  forgiveness  was  that  he  should 
no  longer  identify  himself  wholly  with  the  Whig 
party ;  he  was  henceforth  to  receive  at  his  house 
Tories  as  well  as  Whigs.  Perhaps,  since  the 
Regency  had  faded  to  a  distant  dream,  it  cost  him 
little  to  make  this  sacrifice  of  his  political  friends. 
The  price  he  hoped  to  obtain  in  return  for  his  filial 
submission,  was  the  payment  of  his  debts.  But  this 

1  Charlotte  Augusta  Matilda,  eldest  daughter  of  George  III., 
Princess  Royal  (1766-1828),  afterwards  married  the  King  of  Wurtem- 
berg. 


278  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

was  not  much  advanced  thereby,  for  the  King 
declared,  now  as  always,  that  he  would  not  consent 
to  any  increase  of  his  son's  income,  until  he  married 
some  Protestant  princess  from  a  German  court — 
whom  he  alone  considered  to  be  a  suitable  bride  for 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  However,  these  disputed 
questions  were  not  raised  at  the  moment,  and  the 
Prince's  submission  to  the  King  was  followed  by  a 
reconciliation  with  the  Queen.  "  A  gentleman,  who 
lives  in  the  east  end  of  St.  James's  Park,"  writes 
Horace  Walpole,  "has  been  sent  for  by  a  lady  who 
has  a  large  house  in  the  west  end,  and  they  have 
kissed  and  made  friends,  which  he  notified  by  toast- 
ing her  health  in  a  bumper  at  the  Club." l 

Some  rays  of  the  royal  favour,  albeit  tempered 
by  judicious  distance,  now  began  to  fall  upon  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert.  Her  disinterested  efforts  to  make  the 
Prince  submit  himself  were  known  to  the  King  and 
Queen  and  appreciated  by  them.  They  came  to 
admire  her  character  as  a  woman,  to  respect  the 
purity  of  her  life,  to  understand  the  honesty  of  her 
motives,  and  to  admit  that  her  influence  over  the 
Prince  had  never  been  used  for  her  own  advance- 
ment. The  attitude  of  the  King  and  Queen  towards 
her  seems  to  have  changed  about  this  time  from 
dislike  to  benevolent  reserve.  They  perhaps  feared 
that  any  nearer  recognition  would  be  construed 
into  an  acknowledgment  of  her  peculiar  position, 
a  position  which,  notwithstanding  all  facts,  they 
consistently  refused  to  accept.  Yet  all  about  the 
Court  agreed  there  was  no  doubt  whatever  that  the 
Prince  of  Wales  had  been  through  a  form  of  marriage 

1  "  Walpole's  Letters,"  vol.  ix. 


FAMILY   QUARRELS  279 

with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  though  the  details  were  not 
fully  known.  The  King  and  Queen  accepted  Fox's 
denial,  and  treated  the  story  of  the  marriage  as  a 
fabrication,  but  the  princes  and  princesses  and  the 
courtiers  discussed  it  freely.  Lady  Harcourt,1  for 
instance,  who  was  in  the  Queen's  household,  and 
enjoyed  her  favour  and  confidence  to  the  fullest 
extent,  writes  in  the  year  1790  (the  year  when 
the  quarrel  between  the  Queen  and  her  son  was 
raging)  of  a  conversation  she  had  with  the  Duke 
of  Gloucester  of  "the  marriage  between  the  Prince 
and  Mrs.  Fitz."  Again  she  relates  the  following 
anecdote  on  the  same  subject : — "  Pss.  Royal  told 
me  the  P.  of  Wales  had  won  money  of  the  D.  of 
Bedford  at  Newmarket,  and  upon  the  Course 
as  they  were  riding  about  he  called  out  to  the 
Duke,  'You  know  it  don't  signify  what  you 
owe  to  me,  as  your  Brother-in-law.'  Upon  which 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  said,  '  Qu'est  que  c'est  que 
ga  que  vous  lui  dites  la  ? '  '  Je  1'appelle '  (said  the 
Prince)  '  mon  beau-frere.'  '  Qu'est  que  ga  veut 
dire  ;  est-ce  que  la  Fitzherbert  a  une  sceur  ? '  '  Non, 
non'  (said  the  Prince),  '  il  est  1'amant  de  ma  sceur 
ainee,  il  en  est  folle.' " 2 

By  all  the  royal  family,  except  the  King  and 
Queen,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  tacitly  accorded  the 
position  of  morganatic  wife.  The  royal  dukes, 
notably  the  Dukes  of  York  and  Clarence,  treated 
her  en  belle  sceur,  and  with  two  or  three  of  the 


1  Elizabeth,  Countess  of  Harcourt,   Lady  of  the  Bedchamber  to 
Queen  Charlotte,  wife  to  the  Earl  of  Harcourt,  who  was  Master  of 
the  Horse  to  George  III. 

2  "  The  Harcourt  Papers." 


280  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

princesses  she  was  on  terms  of  friendship.  During 
part  of  the  years  1790  and  1791,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
resided  at  her  villa  at  Marble  Hill,  and  here  the 
Prince  of  Wales  and  the  royal  dukes  were  con- 
stant visitors.  On  the  death  of  Lord  North,  the 
Duke  of  Clarence  had  bought  Bushey  Park,  not  far 
from  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  he  was  living  there  with 
the  beautiful  and  accomplished  actress,  Mrs.  Jordan, 
the  mother  of  his  many  children.  In  the  summer 
of  1791  the  Countess  of  Albany,  the  widow  of 
Prince  Charles  Edward  Stuart,  visited  England.1 
The  Prince  of  Wales  gave  a  dinner  in  her  honour, 
and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  he  introduced  her  to  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  whom  she  afterwards  visited  at  Rich- 
mond. The  meeting  between  these  two  distinguished 
women  must  have  been  interesting,  for  though  very 
different  in  circumstances  and  in  breeding  they 
had  one  link  in  common.  Both  of  them  were  ex- 
cluded from  their  rights  because  they  were  Roman 
Catholics. 

This  summer  also,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  attended  the 
grand  masked  fite  given  by  Mrs.  Hobart  at  her 
beautiful  villa  near  Fulham,  which  was  one  of  the 
events  of  the  season.  Mrs.  Hobart  (afterwards 
Countess  of  Berkshire)  was  a  great  friend  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  and,  like  many  other  women  of 
fashion  at  that  day,  presided  at  a  faro  bank  or 
gambling  table.  We  quote  the  following  account  of 
her  f§te>  as  it  affords  a  curious  illustration  of  the 
manners  of  the  time  : — 

1  Louisa,  Countess  of  Albany  (1753-1824),  by  birth  a  Princess  of 
Stolberg-Gedern.  Married  in  1772  Prince  Charles  Edward,  and 
separated  from  him  in  1780.  He  died  in  1788. 


FAMILY   QUARRELS  281 

"  The  Hon.  Mrs.  Hobarfs  Rural  Breakfast  and 
Promenade,  June  28. 

"  This  long-looked-for,  and  long-prevented  de1- 
jeuner  was  given  yesterday  in  spite  of  the  weather. 
It  is  almost  needless  to  remark  that  all  the  first 
nobility  and  fashion  about  town  graced  this  most 
delightful  f£te.  The  Prince  of  Wales  came  first, 
and  precisely  at  one  o'clock.  About  four  or  five 
hundred  persons  were  present :  amongst  them  was 
the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  the  Duchesses  of  Rutland 
and  Gordon,  the  Margravine  of  Anspach,  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  the  Duke  of  Queensberry,  several  of  the 
corps  diplomatique,  and  many  other  foreigners  of  the 
very  first  distinction.  The  Duke  of  Clarence  was 
expected,  but  did  not  attend.  The  breakfast  lasted 
from  two  till  past  seven  o'clock. 

"  The  leading  person  in  this  entertainment  (which 
was  obliged  to  be  confined  to  the  house  on  account 
of  the  weather)  was  Mrs.  Bristow,  a  near  relative  of 
Mrs.  Hobart.  This  lady,  who  had  long  resided  at 
the  Indian  Court  of  Lucknow,  was  every  inch  a 
queen.  Draped  in  all  the  magnificence  of  Eastern 
grandeur,  Mrs.  Bristow  represented  the  Queen  of 
Nourjahad,  as  the  "Light  of  the  World"  in  the 
Garden  of  Roses.  She  was  seated  in  the  larger 
drawing-room,  which  was  very  beautifully  fitted  up 
with  cushions  in  the  Indian  style,  smoking  her 
hookah,  amidst  all  sorts  of  the  choicest  perfumes. 
Mrs.  Bristow  was  very  profuse  with  otto  of  roses, 
drops  of  which  were  thrown  about  the  ladies'  dresses. 
The  whole  house  was  scented  with  the  most  de- 
licious fragrance."1 

1  The  European  Magazine,  July  1791. 


CHAPTER  XV 

SUNSHINE  AND  SHADOW 

• 

(1791—1794) 

THIS  year,  1791,  the  Duke  of  York's  affairs  came  to 
a  crisis.  His  carelessness  about  money  matters, 
and  his  betting  and  gambling  habits,  had  involved 
him  in  hopeless  embarrassment.  Cash  and  credit 
were  alike  exhausted,  and  his  grievance  against  the 
King,  namely  that  he  had  appropriated  all  the 
revenues  of  the  see  of  Osnabriick  during  the  Duke's 
minority,  was  past  remedy,  for  the  King  refused  to 
disburse.  Nevertheless  it  was  to  his  father  that  the 
Duke  went  in  his  trouble.  He  was  the  favourite 
son,  and  the  King  was  willing  to  help  him  on  one 
condition,  namely  that  he  should  marry  a  German 
princess  of  the  Protestant  faith.  This  condition 
the  King  pressed  on  all  his  sons,  precedent  to  his 
granting  any  pecuniary  relief — an  odious  one,  it  must 
be  admitted,  and  one  that  proved  in  some  cases 
unfortunate  in  its  results.  Yet  in  the  case  of  the 
Duke  of  York  the  King  no  doubt  honestly  believed 
that  a  suitable  marriage  would  be  his  salvation. 
He  was  also,  since  the  Prince  of  Wales  refused  to 
be  separated  from  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  several  of 
his  other  sons  had  entered  into  irregular  relations, 
anxious  to  secure  the  succession  to  the  throne  in  as 
nearly  the  direct  line  as  possible.  The  King  had 


SUNSHINE   AND   SHADOW  283 

a  bride  ready  for  his  favourite  son,  the  Princess 
Royal  of  Prussia,  Frederica  Charlotte  Ulrica,  eldest 
daughter  of  Frederick  William  II.  The  Duke 
offered  no  objection.  He  was  heart-whole,  he  had 
met  the  Princess  when  he  was  abroad,  and  did  not 
dislike  her.  The  alliance  was  therefore  arranged 
without  delay.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was,  of  course, 
consulted  in  the  matter  by  his  devoted  brother ; 
he  expressed  himself  well  pleased,  and  raised  no 
difficulties  about  the  marriage  treaty,  but,  says  Sir 
Gilbert  Elliot,  "  He  has  put  in  a  saving  clause  for 
himself  in  case  he  chooses  to  marry,  which  he  thinks 
probable,  if  he  sees  his  brother  happy  with  his  wife, 
and  told  the  King  that,  had  he  permitted  him  to  go 
abroad  at  the  time  he  asked  leave  to  do  so  (in  1784), 
he  meant  to  have  looked  out  for  a  princess  who 
would  have  suited  him,  as  he  was  too  domestic  to 
bear  the  thoughts  of  marrying  a  woman  he  did  not 
like."1  This  reads  curiously  when  we  remember 
the  Prince's  passionate  declaration  at  that  very  time 
to  Lord  Malmesbury,  "  I  will  never  marry ! "  But 
no  doubt  he  deceived  himself  into  thinking  that  he 
spoke  the  truth  now  as  he  spoke  it  then ;  such  was 
his  marvellous  power  of  self-deception,  that  what- 
ever he  wished  became  to  him  right  and  true,  simply 
because  he  wished  it. 

The  Duke  and  Duchess  of  York  were  married 
in  Berlin  on  September  29,  1791.  They  had  a 
tiresome  journey  to  England,  owing  to  the  revolu- 
tionary spirit  then  prevailing  in  France,  and  at  Lisle 
they  were  surrounded  by  a  savage  mob,  and  only 
escaped  by  obliterating  the  signs  of  royalty  from 

1  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Sir  G.  Elliot." 


284  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

their  coach  and  equipage.  They  arrived  in  London 
in  the  middle  of  November,  and  were  received 
with  great  ceremony  by  the  King  and  Queen.  On 
November  23,  on  account  of  some  legal  quibble, 
they  were  re-married  according  to  the  rites  of  the 
Church  of  England.  The  Prince  of  Wales  gave 
the  bride  away. 

As  there  seemed  a  probability  that  one  day  the 
new  Duchess  of  York  might  become-Queen-Consort, 
her  appearance  and  manner  was  much  discussed. 
She  has  been  described  as  "  a  very  short  woman, 
with  a  plain  face,  a  neat  little  figure,  and  a  remark- 
ably small  foot ; "  but  despite  her  small  stature  the 
Duchess  had  a  great  sense  of  what  was  due  to  her 
rank  and  dignity.  She  was  of  a  strong  character, 
decidedly  eccentric,  haughty  and  reserved  to 
strangers,  but  to  her  intimates  the  kindest  woman 
in  the  world. 

Great  curiosity  was  evinced  in  London  society  as 
to  how  the  Duchess  would  conduct  herself  towards 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  not  only  because  of  the  latter's 
relation  to  the  Prince,  but  because  of  the  cordial 
friendship  which  was  known  to  exist  between  her 
and  the  Duke  of  York.  Their  first  meeting,  which 
took  place  at  a  ball  at  the  Duchess  of  Cumberland's, 
is  thus  described :  "  The  Duchess  looked  much 
better  than  that  first  day  at  court.  People  in 
general  were  not  presented  to  her,  but  several  were 
by  the  Prince,  Duke  of  York,  &c.,  and  the  Duchess 
of  Cumberland  presented  Mrs.  Fitz.  Both  ladies 
squeezed  their  fans,  and  talked  for  a  few  minutes, 
and  that  was  all,  so  this  was  the  first  meeting." ' 

1  Letter  of  Miss  Dee  to  Lady  Harcourt  :  "  Harcourt  Papers." 


WATCH   GIVEN   TO   MRS.    FITZHERBERT 
BY   THE   PRINCE   OF   WALES 

Blue  Enamel  set  with  Pearls 
(By permission  of  Mr.  JOHN  HAINES) 


SUNSHINE   AND   SHADOW  285 

There  were  plenty  to  offer  advice  as  to  how  the 
Duchess  should  conduct  herself  towards  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert,  but  she  declined  to  be  influenced  either  by 
the  court  on  one  side,  or  the  Prince  of  Wales  or 
the  Duke  on  the  other.  Brought  up  in  the  strict 
etiquette  of  the  Prussian  court,  she  had  her  own 
views  about  wives  morganatic.  She  received  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  without  difficulty — that  much  was  due  to 
her  character  and  position  ;  but  she  treated  her  with 
distant  civility  de  haut  en  bas,  and  would  not  recog- 
nise in  any  way  the  link  between  them.  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert resented  this  attitude,  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales  resented  it  also.  The  Duke  of  York  could 
not  force  his  Duchess  to  treat  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  with 
more  cordiality,  for  the  Duchess  had  a  will  of  her 
own,  but  the  Prince  of  Wales  apparently  thought 
that  the  Duke  could  do  so  if  he  wished,  and  a  cool- 
ness sprang  up  between  the  brothers  in  consequence. 
Lord  Malmesbury,  writing  in  1792,  says  that 
Colonel  St.  Leger  told  him,  "  She  [Mrs.  Fitzher- 
bert] dislikes  the  Duchess  of  York,  because  the 
Duchess  will  not  treat  her  en  belle  sceur.  It  is  that 
which  is  the  cause  of  the  coolness  between  the 
brothers."  Apparently  the  dislike  which  the  two 
ladies  entertained  for  each  other  was  ineradicable, 
for  fourteen  years  later  Lord  Malmesbury  writes 
in  his  diary:  "May  25,  1803.  The  Duke  of  York 
came  to  me  at  five,  uneasy  lest  the  Duchess  should 
be  forced  to  sup  at  the  same  table  as  Mrs.  Fitzher- 
bert at  the  ball  to  be  given  by  the  Knights  of  the 
Bath,  on  the  ist  of  June.  He  talks  it  over  with  me 
.  .  .  says  the  King  and  Queen  will  not  hear  of  it. 
On  the  other  side  he  wishes  to  keep  on  terms  with 


286  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

the  Prince.  I  say  I  will  see  Lord  Henley,  who 
manages  the  f$te,  and  try  to  manage  it  so  that 
there  shall  be  two  distinct  tables,  one  for  the  Prince, 
to  which  he  is  to  invite,  and  another  for  the  Duke 
and  Duchess  of  York,  to  which  she  is  to  invite  her 
company."  Thus  the  delicate  matter  was  arranged  ; 
each  lady  had  a  table  to  herself.  The  curious  part 
of  this  family  quarrel  is  that,  though  a  coolness 
sprang  up  between  the  royal  brothers,  it  did  not 
interrupt  the  warm  friendship  existing  between  the 
Duke  of  York  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  though  she 
was  the  cause  of  the  coolness.  In  public  the  Duke 
of  York  felt  bound  to  support  the  Duchess,  whose 
claim  was  certainly  based  on  court  etiquette,  but  in 
private  he  allowed  himself  to  be  governed  by  his 
own  feelings.  His  marriage  was  not  a  happy  one. 
The  Duke  was  not  a  model  husband,  and  the 
Duchess  was  ill-tempered.  Their  marriage  was 
unblessed  with  children,  and  before  long  they  were 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  separated.  But  they 
resided  under  the  same  roof,  for  the  Duchess  was 
not  a  woman  given  to  make  a  scandal. 

This  year  was  marked  by  a  further  measure  of 
relief  to  Roman  Catholics.  By  this  Act  (1791)  a 
number  of  obnoxious  penal  laws  (some  of  them 
obsolete)  were  repealed ;  a  Roman  Catholic  could 
no  longer  be  prosecuted  for  not  attending  his  parish 
(Anglican)  church,  nor  for  being  a  Papist,  nor  for 
hearing  or  saying  Mass,  nor  for  belonging  to  any 
ecclesiastical  order  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  nor  for 
performing  or  taking  any  part  in  any  form  of  worship 
according  to  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  The 
abolition  of  these  galling  restrictions  was  a  distinct 


SUNSHINE   AND   SHADOW  287 

relief  to  the  Roman  Catholics,  who  now  began  to 
emerge  from  the  shadow  of  persecution,  under  which 
they  had  lived  for  the  last  two  centuries.  Roman 
Catholic  places  of  worship  were  now  built  without 
hindrance,  and  "  missions "  were  established  in 
different  parts  of  England,  not  for  the  purpose  of 
proselytising  (the  English  Roman  Catholics  of  that 
day  did  not  proselytise),  but  solely  for  the  purpose  of 
ministering  to  the  religious  needs  of  the  little  com- 
munities of  Roman  Catholics  scattered  about  the 
country.  The  funds  for  this  purpose  were  provided 
by  wealthy  members  of  the  Church.  Among  these 
was  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  who  not  only  endowed  a 
mission  at  Brambridge,  the  village  where  she  had 
grown  up,  but  contributed  towards  the  support  of 
one  at  Brighton.  (The  church  there  was  not  built 
until  later.)  Her  religion  was  part  of  her  life,  and 
she  practised  it  regularly,  but  quietly  and  unob- 
trusively. She  seldom  spoke  of  it,  and  never  at- 
tempted, in  the  least  degree,  to  influence  others, 
or  to  proselytise.  This  led  many  to  suppose  that 
she  had  given  up  her  faith  in  compliance  with  the 
wishes  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  "  I  hear,"  writes 
one,  "that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  has  renounced  the 
errors  of  Popery  and  eats  maigre  no  longer."1 
Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth.  The 
Prince  never,  in  the  slightest  degree,  attempted 
to  hinder  his  wife  in  the  practice  of  her  religion, 
not  even  in  times  of  popular  excitement,  when  her 
attendance  at  Mass  was  likely  to  cause  embarrass- 
ment. Like  the  King,  he  favoured  the  Relief  Acts 

1  "  Charles  Long  to  Viscount  Lowther."   Lonsdale  MSS.    Historical 
MSS.  Commission. 


288  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

of  1778  and  1791.  He  was  a  friend  of  Sir  John 
Throckmorton  and  other  members  of  "  the  Catholic 
Committee,"  and  he  always  showed  the  greatest 
courtesy  to  Roman  Catholics.  His  views  on  the 
subject  of  Catholic  Emancipation  were  not  at  this 
time  known ;  it  was  generally  supposed  that  he 
did  not  share  the  King's  strong  prejudice  to  ad- 
mitting Roman  Catholics  to  Parliament,  but  that 
he  agreed  on  this  subject  with  Fox  and  other 
leading  Whigs.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  never  obtruded 
her  views  on  the  burning  question  of  Emancipation  ; 
she  seemed  rather  to  dread  its  discussion  at  Carlton 
House,  and  if  the  question  came  up  she  always 
changed  the  subject,  lest  it  should  seem  that  she 
influenced  the  Prince.  Like  so  many  of  the  English 
Roman  Catholics  at  that  time,  she  was  singularly 
temperate  in  her  views,  and  decidedly  opposed  to 
proselytising.  Her  views  were  rather  those  of  Sir 
John  Throckmorton  and  the  Catholic  Committee 
than  of  the  ultramontane  or  "papistic"  party.  It 
was  the  fashion  among  many  of  the  leading  English 
Catholic  laity  at  this  time  to  deprecate  undue  inter- 
ference from  Rome,  and  to  show  rather  that  they 
had  points  of  contact  with  the  national  religion.1 
No  doubt  a  good  deal  of  this  was  due  to  a  desire 
to  break  down  prejudice  against  a  creed  which  was 
considered  to  be  Italian  and  "un-English."  They 
were  anxious  to  show  that  Roman  Catholics  could 
be  as  loyal  to  the  King  and  as  tolerant  of  those 

1  But  the  Church  of  England  was  so  spiritually  dead  at  that  time, 
that  their  overtures  met  with  no  response,  and  the  strenuous  protests 
of  Archbishop  Milner  and  the  appointment  of  Vicars  Apostolic  by 
Rome  checked  this  "  Galilean  "  spirit,  and  brought  the  leading  Roman 
Catholic  laity  into  line  again. 


SUNSHINE   AND  SHADOW  289 

who  differed  from  them  as  their  fellow-subjects, 
and  so  work  for  the  great  cause  of  Emancipation. 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  not  one  of  those  who  worked 
for  Emancipation,  either  directly  or  indirectly.  She 
seems  to  have  been  content  with  the  free  practice 
of  her  religion.  At  the  same  time,  she  was  not, 
in  any  sense,  unfaithful  to  her  Church,  nor  forgetful 
of  her  co-religionists.  An  instance  of  the  latter 
occurred  in  1792  at  Brighton. 

The  French  Revolution  was  then  in  full  blaze. 
Fugitives  were  flying  from  France  in  great  numbers, 
many  to  find  refuge  in  England.  The  burning  of 
the  Tuileries,  the  deposition  and  imprisonment  of 
the  King  and  Queen,  and  the  massacres  in  Paris, 
had  produced  a  profound  impression  in  England, 
and  the  greatest  sympathy  was  shown  to  the  French 
emigres.  The  edicts  against  priests  and  nuns  led 
to  monasteries  being  broken  up,  and  the  whole- 
sale flight  of  religious  communities.  Among  the 
sufferers  was  a  community  of  Franciscan  nuns, 
which  were  located  at  Montarges,  where  they  had 
been  established  for  many  years.  They  were  ex- 
pelled with  violence  by  the  French  revolutionists, 
and  fled  for  their  lives.  At  Ostend  they  embarked 
on  a  boat  for  England,  and  after  many  days  at  sea 
they  were  eventually  landed  at  Shoreham,  near 
Brighton.  The  poor  nuns  were  set  down  on  the 
shore  from  fishing-boats,  wet,  penniless,  hungry, 
and  with  nothing  but  the  clothes  they  stood  up 
in.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  who  was  then  at  Brighton, 
was  one  of  the  first  to  hear  of  their  arrival. 
She  immediately  started  a  subscription  among 
her  friends  at  the  Pavilion,  and  collected  enough 

VOL.    I.  T 


29o  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

to  provide  the  nuns  with  food  and  lodging.  She 
then  drove  to  Shoreham,  where  she  found  the 
nuns  still  sitting  on  the  beach,  surrounded  by  a 
curious  and  sympathetic  crowd.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
had  them  conveyed  to  Brighton,  where  she  arranged 
a  lodging  for  them  in  the  Ship  Inn.  In  this  she 
was  acting  not  only  on  her  own  charitable  impulse, 
but  on  behalf  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  His  con- 
duct on  this  occasion  exhibits  him  in  a  favour- 
able light,  and  shows  how  he  could  be  moved  to 
noble  and  generous  actions.  What  happened  to 
the  nuns  on  their  arrival  at  the  Ship  Inn  is  best 
told  in  the  words  of  one  of  the  members  of  the 
community. 

"  It  was  there  (at  the  inn)  that  we  learned  the 
protection  accorded  to  us  by  the  Prince  of  Wales 
through  the  intervention  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  who 
came  herself  to  see  us  on  our  arrival.  We  did  not, 
however,  as  yet  know  that  the  protection  extended 
so  far  as  to  defray  all  our  expenses  in  the  town,  and 
that  all  the  nobility  who  were  there  had  subscribed 
to  this  act  of  benevolence.  .  .  .  The  Prince  of 
Wales  himself  came  to  see  the  Reverend  Mother. 
He  entered  into  the  minutest  details  of  everything 
which  concerned  us."  [He  advised  them  to  remain 
in  England  for  a  time  until  they  could  with  safety 
return.]  "  The  Prince  again  came  to  see  us. 
This  time  he  asked  to  see  the  community.  The 
Reverend  Mother  having  assembled  us  all,  he 
received  us  with  a  kindness  truly  royal.  He  con- 
jured the  Reverend  Mother  (these  were  his  words) 
to  make  the  community  sit  down,  while  he  remained 
standing.  He  repeated  the  advice  which  he  had 


SUNSHINE   AND  SHADOW  291 

given  the  evening  before  about  our  journey  to 
Brussels,  and  he  invited  us  in  the  most  obliging 
terms  to  go  to  London,  where  we  should  find  all 
the  inhabitants  disposed  to  recompense  us  for  our 
losses.  The  want  of  chairs  prevented  many  of  us 
from  being  able  to  sit  down.  The  Prince  observed 
this,  and,  turning  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  he  said  in 
that  kind  manner  which  is  his  characteristic,  '  See, 
we  are  keeping  them  standing ;  let  us  be  off,  I 
cannot  suffer  this  any  longer.'  "  l 

Nor  did  the  Prince's  sympathy  stop  here.  He 
collected  for  the  nuns  over  ;£ioo,  and  it  was  by 
his  assistance  and  advice  that  they  finally  settled 
in  England,  and  founded  a  religious  house  near 
Taunton.  Another  branch  of  the  same  order  from 
Bruges  (with  which  the  Welds,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
connections  by  her  first  marriage,  were  connected) 
also  fled  to  England  and  found  an  asylum  with 
Sir  Edward  Smythe  (Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  cousin)  at 
Acton  Burnell.  A  Benedictine  mission  was  also 
established  there  during  this  period.  In  England 
generally  at  this  time  the  generous  sentiment  of 
hospitality  and  humanity  overcame  the  feelings  of 
prejudice  against  "  Popish  priests."  The  nuns 
were  not  the  only  fugitives  who  received  a  warm 
welcome.  In  one  week,  over  five  hundred  French 
people  (chiefly  aristocrats  and  priests)  were  landed 
at  Brighton,  including  the  Archbishop  of  Avranches 
and  the  Dean  of  Rouen.  The  Marquise  de  Beaule 
voyaged  from  Dieppe  to  Brighton  in  an  open  boat 
in  a  tempest,  and  was  thrown  upon  the  beach  more 

1  This  account  is  from  a  MS.  preserved   at  St.    Mary's   Priory, 
Princethorpe,  Taunton.     "  Jerningham  Letters." 


292  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

dead  than  alive.     Her  experience  was  that  of  many 
aristocratic  ladies  of  France. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  these  unfortunate 
fugitives  was  the  young  and  beautiful  Duchesse  de 
Noailles,  who  fled  from  Paris  for  her  life,  disguised 
in  boy's  clothes ;  she  found  a  fishing-boat  at  Dieppe, 
was  concealed  in  a  coil  of  cable,  and  after  many  days 
at  sea  was  landed  upon  Brighton  beach,  one  gusty 
morning,  August  29,  1792.  As  soon  as  her  arrival 
became  known  she  "  was  received  with  the  most 
polite  and  cordial  hospitality  by  his  Royal  Highness 
the  Prince  of  Wales  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert."  l  The 
Duchesse  stayed  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  until  other 
accommodation  could  be  found  for  her,  and  when 
she  had  recovered  from  her  fatigue  she  was  dressed 
up  in  some  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  clothes,  and  enter- 
tained with  all  possible  honour  by  the  Prince  at 
the  Pavilion.  We  read :  "  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  the 
Duchesse  de  Noailles,  and  many  other  ladies  of  dis- 
tinction were  present  at  the  cricket  match,  and  dined 
in  a  marquee  pitched  on  the  ground  for  that  purpose. 
The  Prince's  band  of  music  attended,  and  played 
during  the  whole  time  the  ladies  were  at  dinner.  In 
the  evening  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  the  Duchesse,  Lady 
Clermont,  and  Miss  Pigot"  [Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
lady  companion]  "  walked  round  the  ground, 
seemingly  the  better  to  gratify  the  spectators  with  a 
sight  of  the  French  lady.  The  Duchesse  de  Noailles 
appears  to  be  twenty-one  or  twenty-two  years  of 
age.  She  is  very  handsome,  and  her  figure  and  de- 
portment are  remarkably  interesting."  2 

1  Sussex  Weekly  Advertiser,  September  3,  1792. 

2  Ibid.,  September  10,  1792. 


SUNSHINE   AND   SHADOW  293 

All  this  goes  to  show  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  in- 
fluence over  the  Prince  showed  no  signs  of  wane. 
As  Lord  Malmesbury  wrote  in  June  1792,  "The 
Prince  was  more  attached  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  than 
ever  ...  he  is  now  more  under  her  influence  than 
ever."  Perhaps  the  strongest  proof  of  her  influence 
at  this  time  is  that  she  succeeded  in  maintaining  the 
estrangement  between  the  Prince  and  Fox,  which 
had  assumed  a  political  as  well  as  a  personal 
aspect.  With  this  the  French  Revolution  had 
something  to  do,  for  the  bloody  excesses  of  the 
revolutionary  mob  had  alienated  the  sympathy  of 
the  moderate  Whigs  and  led  to  a  split  in  the  party, 
the  Duke  of  Portland  and  Burke  representing  the 
moderate  wing  and  Fox  the  extremists.  The 
Prince,  who  had  no  sympathy  for  the  revolutionary 
doctrines  of  Fox,  sided  with  Burke,  and  this  despite 
the  efforts  of  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire  on  behalf 
of  Fox.  There  is  little  doubt  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert, 
who  viewed  the  French  Revolution  with  horror  and 
Fox  with  detestation,  had  something  to  say  in  this 
matter.  In  any  event,  after  Burke's  quarrel  with 
Fox,  and  his  "dagger  scene"  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, the  Prince  also  separated  himself  from  Fox, 
and  for  six  years  had  little  communication  with  him. 

For  the  next  two  years  (from  1792  to  1794)  the 
Prince  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  led  a  comparatively 
secluded  life.  This  was  in  part  forced  upon  the 
Prince  by  circumstances.  His  debts  were  again 
causing  him  grave  embarrassment.  The  usual 
appeal  to  the  King  was  made,  and  met  with  the 
usual  refusal.  Again  came  the  Prince's  ostentatious 
retrenchment,  Carlton  House  shut  up,  the  household 


294  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

reduced,  and  the  horses  sold.  The  Prince  was  very 
little  in  London  during  these  years.  When  he  was 
not  at  Brighton  he  would  take  a  place  in  the  country, 
and  live  there  the  life  of  a  country  gentleman.  He 
gave  himself  up  completely  to  the  pleasures  of 
country  life  ;  his  chief  diversion  was  hunting.  He 
was  devoted  to  horses,  and,  notwithstanding  his 
weight,  he  was  a  first-rate  rider.  It  used  to  be  a 
saying  at  Brighton  that,  heavy  as  he  was,  "  he  rode 
so  well  that  he  never  soiled  his  nankeens."  For  the 
most  part  the  Prince  hunted  in  Hampshire,  where 
he  resided  for  one  season  at  the  Grange,  near  Alton, 
which  he  rented  or  borrowed  from  Lord  Ash  burton, 
and  he  hunted  with  the  Villebois  hounds.  The 
Prince  of  Wales's  plumes  still  appear  on  the  club 
buttons.  His  choice  of  Hampshire,  and  that  part  of 
it  in  particular,  was  no  doubt  influenced  by  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  whose  mother  and  brothers  still  lived  at 
Brambridge,  and  her  uncle  Mr.  Errington  and  her 
cousin  Harry  Errington  (a  friend  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales)  at  Red  Rice,  near  Andover.  So  attached 
was  the  Prince  to  this  neighbourhood,  that  he  rented 
for  many  years  a  place  called  Kempshott,  where 
still  linger  legends  of  his  tenancy.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
always  accompanied  the  Prince  of  Wales  on  his 
visits  to  Hampshire  ;  but  she  seems  generally  to 
have  resided  at  a  cottage  near  by.  At  Kempshott 
she  chose  the  decorations  of  the  drawing-room,  and 
the  gardens  are  also  said  to  have  been  laid  out  under 
her  direction.  The  Prince  in  after  years  used  to 
say  that  some  of  his  happiest  days  were  passed  at 
Kempshott.  He  had  as  fine  a  pack  of  foxhounds 
in  his  kennel,  and  as  splendid  a  lot  of  hunters  in  his 


SUNSHTNE  AND  SHADOW  295 

stables,  as  could  be  met  with  in  the  county.  He  was 
exceedingly  popular  with  all  classes,  the  country 
squires,  farmers,  and  labourers. 

The  Prince's  love  of  horses  did  not  stop  at  hunt- 
ing. He  was  for  some  years  an  active  member  of 
the  Jockey  Club,  and  he  had  training  stables  at 
Newmarket.  His  horses  were  most  successful ;  at 
the  very  outset  of  his  racing  career  he  had  won  the 
Derby,  and  during  his  connection  with  the  turf, 
which  extended  over  a  period  of  seven  years,  he 
won  in  all  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  races.  The 
cost  of  his  stud  was  said  to  amount  to  some  ,£30,000 
a  year.  He  was  especially  fond  of  Newmarket,  and 
his  racing  colours  were  always  to  be  seen  there, 
generally  leading.  Whenever  there  was  a  big 
meeting  he  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  were  sure  to  be 
present ;  though  sometimes  they  had  not  enough 
money  left  to  get  home,  and  on  one  occasion 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  reduced  to  borrowing  ^"5 
from  the  postillion. 

The  Prince's  connection  with  the  turf  terminated 
abruptly,  in  consequence  of  an  unpleasantness  which 
arose  in  connection  with  his  jockey,  Sam  Chifney, 
who  was  called  before  the  stewards  of  the  Jockey 
Club  for  unfair  riding  of  the  Prince's  horse  "  Escape," 
and  warned  off  the  turf.  The  Prince  resented  this 
treatment  of  his  jockey,  and  never  went  to  New- 
market again.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
the  Prince  had  anything  to  do  with  Chifney's  action, 
whether  he  were  innocent  or  guilty,  but  many  im- 
putations were  cast  upon  him,  and  the  unfortunate 
incident  did  much  to  damage  his  popularity. 

The  Prince  loved  popularity  more  than  anything 


296  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

else,  and  when  it  suffered  he  was  sorely  distressed. 
He  never  sought  the  cause  in  some  folly  of  his  own, 
but  invariably  blamed  somebody  else.  It  may  be 
feared  that  often  he  threw  the  blame  on  the  un- 
offending Mrs.  Fitzherbert ;  she  was  nearly  always 
with  him  for  one  thing,  and  therefore  an  easy  mark 
for  his  anger,  and  for  another  there  were  many 
mischief-makers  ready  to  promote  an  estrangement 
between  them.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  must  often  have 
felt  during  these  years  that  the  house  of  her  happi- 
ness was  built  upon  sand.  Of  so  unstable  a  nature 
was  the  Prince  that  it  is  marvellous  she  kept  her 
ascendency  over  him  for  so  long.  She  could  only 
have  done  it  by  shutting  her  eyes  to  much  that 
was  going  on  around  her,  and  by  making  greater 
allowances  for  him  than  most  women  would  make 
for  any  man.  Though  she  stood  first  in  his  affec- 
tions, she  by  no  means  stood  alone.  It  was  aptly 
said  by  Sheridan  "that  the  Prince  was  too  much 
every  lady's  man  to  be  the  man  of  any  lady," 
and  this  was  a  trait  in  his  character  that  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  had  to  accept  with  what  grace  she 
could.  She  was  powerless  to  alter  it,  and  she 
knew  that  continual  protests  on  her  part  would 
only  lead  to  further  estrangement.  She  tried  to 
school  herself  into  bearing  her  trials  with  calmness, 
by  remembering  how  women  threw  themselves  at 
his  feet,  and  by  arguing  that  in  this  respect  she 
suffered  with  many  another  consort  of  a  prince  or 
king.  After  all  she  was  his  wife,  and  the  others 
were  only  his  mistresses.  There  is  no  need  to 
dwell  upon  the  Prince's  amours ;  they  were  many 
and  notorious,  and  cannot  be  defended.  But  con- 


SUNSHINE   AND   SHADOW  297 

demnation  may  be  mitigated  by  remembering  his 
youth,  his  temperament,  and  the  temptations  with 
which  the  Prince  of  Wales,  of  all  men,  was  sur- 
rounded, and  also  the  easy  code  of  morality  which 
prevailed  in  society  at  that  time.  No  doubt  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  remembered  all  this,  yet  despite  her 
self-discipline  she  was  not  always  une  femme  com- 
plaisante,  and  there  were  times  when  her  sorely- 
tried  patience  gave  way,  and  she  assailed  the 
delinquent  with  tears  and  reproaches.  The  Prince, 
whose  moral  sense  in  this  respect  was  completely 
wanting,  regarded  her  protests  as  outbursts  of 
unreasonable  jealousy,  and  her  resentment  as  a 
proof  that  she  no  longer  loved  him.  He  was 
filled  with  a  sense  of  injury.  There  were  always 
beautiful  and  frail  sirens  ready  to  whisper  in  his 
ear  suggestions  against  Mrs.  Fitzherbert ;  one  of 
them  was,  that  she  had  been  heard  to  say  "  it  was 
the  rank  of  his  Royal  Highness  that  she  loved, 
more  than  his  person."  This  was  untrue,  for  if 
ever  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  one  to  love  him, 
that  one  was  Maria  Fitzherbert,  and  she  showed 
it  by  every  action  of  her  life.  Deep  down  in  his 
heart  he  knew  this,  but  it  served  his  purpose  for 
the  moment  to  carry  the  war  into  her  camp  by 
regarding  her  remonstrances  as  proofs  of  her  lack 
of  affection.  Rumours  of  their  quarrels  and 
estrangement,  therefore,  were  frequent  during 
these  years.  Lady  Jerningham *  mentions  one  of 
them  so  far  back  as  1791.  They  even  penetrated 
to  the  circle  of  the  court.  Mrs.  Harcourt,  a 
confidante  of  Queen  Charlotte,  declares  that  the 

1  "  Jerningham  Letters." 


298  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Duke  of  Gloucester  told  her  that  "  the  marriage 
between  the  Prince  and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was 
without  much  love  on  either  side.  He  had  his 
amusements  elsewhere,  but  he  had  much  con- 
sideration for  her.  She  was  sometimes  jealous 
and  discontented ;  her  temper  violent,  though 
apparently  so  quiet.  He  hoped  .  .  .  the  Prince 
would  remain  in  her  hands,  as  she  was  no  political 
intriguer,  and  probably,  if  they  parted,  he  would 
fall  into  worse  hands." l 

So  matters  went  on  until  early  in  the  year  1794, 
when  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  position  suffered  an  in- 
direct blow  from  the  annulment  of  the  marriage  of 
Prince  Augustus  Frederick,2  a  younger  brother  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  with  Lady  Augusta  Murray, 
daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Dunmore.  The  story  of 
this  marriage  is  one  of  the  romances  of  the  House 
of  Hanover.  Augustus  Frederick,  like  all  the 
younger  sons  of  George  III.,  spent  much  of  his 
youth  abroad.  In  the  winter  of  1792-93  he  was  in 
delicate  health,  and  was  sent  to  Rome  under  the 
care  of  a  governor,  to  escape  the  rigours  of  the 
English  climate.  He  was  then  in  his  twentieth 
year.  Rome  was  at  that  time  one  of  the  gayest 
and  most  cosmopolitan  cities  in  Europe,  and  there 
was  a  large  colony  of  English  residents  and  visitors. 
Among  the  English  staying  at  Rome  that  winter 
were  the  Countess  of  Dunmore  and  her  family. 
Her  husband,  the  Earl  of  Dunmore,  was  not  with 
her ;  he  was  occupied  with  his  duties  as  Governor 

1  Mrs.  Harcourt's  "  Diary." 

2  Augustus  Frederick,  Duke  of  Sussex  (1773-1843),  sixth  son  of 
George  III. 


h    _•    £? 


N  O  ° 

S  1  * 

^  °  § 

t/3  -,  H- 

W  S  K 

a  " 


*   3  ^ 

a  Si 

il!         >J 


SUNSHINE   AND   SHADOW  299 

of  the  Bahama  Islands.1  Lady  Augusta  Murray  was 
the  eldest  daughter  of  a  numerous  family.  She  was 
a  lady  of  beauty,  wit,  and  talent.  Prince  Augustus 
Frederick  fell  in  love  with  her,  and  after  four 
months'  courtship  he,  unknown  to  her  mother, 
offered  her  marriage.  Lady  Augusta  at  first  re- 
fused her  lover,  and  pointed  out  to  him  the  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  their  union ;  but  her  opposition  only 
increased  the  young  Prince's  passion,  and  in  the 
end  she  gave  way.  It  was  the  usual  story  ;  first 
of  all  she  promised  never  to  marry  any  one  else, 
then  they  bound  themselves  by  a  solemn  betrothal 
according  to  the  fashion  of  the  time.  This  betrothal 
was  a  preliminary  to  the  marriage  which  followed. 

There  was  in  Rome  at  that  time  a  clergyman  of 
the  English  Church,  named  Gunn,  and  to  him  the 
Prince  appealed.  Despite  the  penalties  of  the 
Royal  Marriage  Act,  the  clergyman  consented  to 
perform  the  ceremony  of  marriage  between  Prince 
Augustus  Frederick  and  Lady  Augusta,  and  in 
April  1793  they  were  secretly  married  at  Rome, 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England,  by 
Mr.  Gunn,  but  without  witnesses.  Some  months 
later  it  became  necessary  that  Lady  Augusta  should 
tell  her  mother  of  the  marriage.  Dismayed  and 
bewildered,  Lady  Dunmore  consented  to  keep  it 
secret  until  its  validity  could  be  decided.  In  the 
autumn  of  1793  the  Prince  and  the  Dunmore  family 
returned  to  England,  and  there  the  Prince  learned 
that,  apart  from  the  Royal  Marriage  Act,  the  fact 

1  John  Murray,  fourth  Earl  of  Dunmore  (1732-1809),  Governor 
of  New  York  and  Virginia  (previous  to  the  American  War),  was 
appointed  Governor  of  the  Bahamas  1787. 


300  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

that  the  marriage  had  been  solemnised  in  the 
Roman  jurisdiction  might  be  used  to  invalidate  it. 
He  at  once  determined  to  have  the  ceremony 
repeated  in  England,  and  the  banns  of  marriage 
between  "  Augusta  Murray,  spinster,  and  Augustus 
Frederick,  bachelor,"  were  published  at  St.  George's, 
Hanover  Square.  As  no  titles  were  used  they 
passed  as  two  ordinary  persons,  and  the  banns 
excited  no  remark.  They  were  married  over  again 
by  the  curate,  who  had  no  knowledge  of  whom  he  was 
marrying.  When  the  King  and  the  Queen  heard  of 
Prince  Augustus  Frederick's  marriage,  their  wrath 
knew  no  bounds.  Despite  the  tears  and  prayers 
of  the  wedded  lovers,  despite  the  birth  and  position 
of  Lady  Augusta,  and  the  fact  that  she  was  with 
child,  the  King  at  once  took  steps,  under  the  Royal 
Marriage  Act  of  1772,  to  have  the  marriage 
annulled  and  set  aside.  This  was  the  first  case 
under  the  Act,  for  the  marriages  of  the  King's 
two  brothers  without  the  consent  of  the  King  had 
taken  place  previous  to  the  passing  of  the  Act ; 
the  marriage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert  had  taken  place  since,  but  it  had  never  been 
acknowledged.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  the 
details  of  this  case,  which  was  in  the  nature  of  a 
test  case.  Of  course  the  King  gained  his  point, 
for  the  courts  of  law  proved  themselves  as  obse- 
quious to  his  wishes  as  Parliament  had  done.  By 
a  formal  process  the  Court  of  Privileges  declared 
both  the  marriage  in  England  and  the  marriage  at 
Rome  to  be  null  and  void.  The  penalties  of  pre- 
munire  were  not  enforced  (it  was  practically  im 
possible  to  enforce  them);  but  to  the  unhappy 


SUNSHINE  AND   SHADOW  301 

husband  and  wife  the  annulment  of  their  marriage 
was  penalty  enough.  Prince  Augustus  Frederick 
protested  vehemently  against  the  decision,  but  his 
protest  was  disregarded.  He  wrote  to  his  father, 
and  begged  to  be  allowed  to  abandon  his  rights  to 
the  succession,  and  to  sink  into  the  character  of  a 
private  gentleman,  so  that  he  might  be  regarded  as 
the  husband  of  his  wife.  His  prayer  was  rejected 
with  scorn.  Lady  Augusta  then  refused  to  occupy 
an  anomalous  position,  and  she  withdrew  from  her 
husband  against  his  will.  The  Prince  always  main- 
tained that  she  was  his  wife.  Two  children  were 
born  of  the  marriage,  a  boy  and  a  girl.1  In  con- 
sequence of  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  these  children 
were  regarded  as  born  out  of  wedlock.  But  a  com- 
plication arose,  for  though  illegitimate  in  England 
they  were  legitimate  in  Hanover,  and  the  son  was 
later  declared  eligible  to  succeed  to  the  throne  of 
Hanover,  in  failure  of  the  male  issue  of  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland.2  The  King  so  far  recognised  the 
anomalous  state  of  affairs  as  to  grant  in  1806  a 
royal  license  to  Lady  Augusta  to  assume  the  title 
of  Comtesse  d'Ameland. 

The   course   of  this  unhappy  affair  to  its  unto- 

1  The  son  was  known  as  Sir  Augustus  d'Este,  the  daughter  married 
Lord  Truro.     Lady  Augusta   Murray  died  in   1830.     The  Duke  of 
Sussex  after  a  short  interval  married   Lady   Cecilia   Buggin  (nee 
Underwood),  who  was  later  created  by  Queen  Victoria  Duchess  of 
Inverness. 

2  This  contingency  did  not  arise.     On   the  accession  of  Queen 
Victoria,  by  the  operation  of  the  Salic  Law  Hanover  became  sepa- 
rated from  England,  and  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  became  King  of 
Hanover  as   Ernest  Augustus   I.     He  was   succeeded  by  his   son 
George  V.,  "the  blind  King."    The  de  jure  King  of  Hanover  is  his 
son,  the  present  Duke  of  Cumberland,  who  is  robbed  of  his  rights  by 
Prussia. 


302  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

ward  ending  was  watched  with  keen  interest  by 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  The  decision  of  the  Court  of 
Privileges  made  it  clear  to  her  that,  even  if  her 
marriage  were  acknowledged  at  some  future  time,  it 
would  always  be  regarded  as  illegal.  For  if  Lady 
Augusta  Murray's  marriage  to  Prince  Augustus 
Frederick  (a  sixth  son,  and  thus  far  removed  from 
the  succession  to  the  throne)  was  refused  the  ap- 
proval of  the  King  and  the  sanction  of  the  law,  what 
chance  had  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  who  had  married  the 
heir-apparent,  of  any  recognition  ?  Lady  Augusta 
Murray  was  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England, 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  a  member  of  the  Church  of 
Rome.  Moreover,  Lady  Augusta,  though  a  subject, 
could  boast  of  royal  descent  on  both  sides.  This 
fact  might  have  led  George  III.  to  pause  before  he 
cast  a  slur  upon  this  virtuous  woman,  for  her  pedi- 
gree was  an  illustrious  one,  in  a  sense  as  illustrious  as 
that  of  his  consort  from  Mecklenburg-Strelitz.  True, 
Lady  Augusta  was  British  and  not  German.  On  her 
father's  side  she  could  trace  back  her  lineage,  through 
the  Stanleys,  to  the  daughter  of  Henry  VII.  of 
England  ;  through  the  same  line  she  could  establish 
her  descent  from  William  I.,  Prince  of  Orange,  and 
Louis,  Duke  of  Montpensier  ;  again,  from  the  same 
source  she  could  show  her  descent  from  Charles 
VII.  of  France.  On  the  side  of  her  mother,  who 
was  a  Stuart,  she  could  trace  back  her  descent  in 
the  direct  line  to  the  Hamiltons,  Dukes  of  Chatel- 
herault,  and  to  James  II.,  King  of  Scotland.  Surely 
the  daughter  of  an  earl  with  a  pedigree  like  this 
was  as  fit  a  mate  for  a  younger  son  of  a  King  of 
England,  as  some  obscure  German  princess  ?  But 


SUNSHINE   AND   SHADOW  303 

German  traditions  unfortunately  prevailed  in  the 
court  of  George  III.,  and  thus  Lady  Augusta  was 
placed  in  the  light  of  the  Prince's  mistress,  and  an 
insult  was  cast  not  only  upon  her,  but  on  her  family, 
and  through  them  on  the  whole  body  of  the  British 
peerage. 

The  decision  of  the  Court  of  Privileges  finally 
closed  the  door  upon  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  hopes  of 
restitution,  had  any  remained  after  the  denials  of  her 
marriage  in  Parliament.  It  was  now  made  clear  to 
her,  beyond  any  shadow  of  doubt,  that  she  had 
nothing  to  trust  to  but  the  honour  of  her  husband, 
and  events  soon  showed  that  she  trusted  to  a  broken 
reed. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

THE   FIRST   SEPARATION 
(1794-1795) 

BY  this  time  the  Prince's  affairs  were  again  in  a 
desperate  condition,  and  it  became  obvious,  even 
to  him,  that  the  day  of  reckoning  could  not  be  de- 
layed much  longer.  Sunk  in  debt  and  difficulties, 
he  was  at  his  wits'  end  for  money.  All  the  usual 
sources  of  relief  were  closed  to  him ;  the  Jews  and 
money-lenders  would  not  advance  him  a  penny 
more.  Wearied  by  fruitless  applications,  and  dis- 
gusted with  barren  promises,  many  of  the  Prince's 
tradesmen  refused  any  longer  to  execute  his  orders, 
and,  denied  admission  to  his  palace,  some  of 
them  stopped  him  in  the  streets  with  demands  for 
payment ;  even  the  workmen  employed  at  Carlton 
House  solicited  their  wages  in  vain,  and  at  last 
presented  a  petition  for  payment  to  the  Prime 
Minister,  who  referred  them  back  to  the  Prince. 
Never  was  Prince  in  so  pitiful  a  plight  before. 
Driven  to  desperation,  he  tried  to  raise  money 
at  exorbitant  interest  on  post  obits  on  the  King's 
life ;  these  deeds  were  signed  by  the  Prince  of 
Wales  and  his  two  brothers,  the  Dukes  of  York 
and  Clarence.  Double  the  sum  lent  was  to  be 
repaid  when  the  King  died,  or  any  of  the  three 
royal  brothers  came  to  the  throne.  But  even  these 


THE   FIRST  SEPARATION  305 

terms  failed  to  tempt  the  lenders,  for  only  some 
,£30,000  was  raised.  The  Prince  went  further  still, 
and  offered  .£10,000  and  an  Irish  peerage  after  the 
King's  death  for  every  ,£5000  lent  to  him  now. 
But  even  for  this  reward  he  could  raise  little  or 
nothing,  so  dishonoured  were  his  bonds.  Few 
would  believe  his  promises,  even  when  given  in 
writing,  for  so  many  accusations  had  been  brought 
against  him  of  breach  of  faith,  and  repudiation  of 
obligations.  Besides,  it  was  well  known  that  the 
Prince  regarded  all  those  to  whom  he  owed  money 
as  his  worst  enemies. 

By  the  middle  of  the  year  1793  the  Prince  of 
Wales  had  exhausted  every  resource,  and  was 
forced  to  apply  once  more  to  the  King.  Lord 
Malmesbury  was  in  London  at  the  time  ;  the  Prince 
sent  for  him,  and  told  him  the  tale  of  his  "total 
ruin."  Several  executions  had  been  in  his  house, 
he  said,  Lord  Rawdon  had  saved  him  from  one, 
but  what  was  one  among  so  many  ?  his  debts 
amounted  to  ,£375,000.  Lord  Malmesbury  was 
implored  to  bring  the  matter  before  the  King, 
and  to  tell  him  in  the  event  of  refusal  that 
the  Prince  must  break  up  his  establishment 
and  live  abroad.  Lord  Malmesbury  seems  to  have 
shifted  the  task  on  to  Lord  Southampton,  who 
(he  must  have  been  used  to  it  by  this  time)  drew 
up  yet  another  schedule  of  the  Prince's  debts, 
and  laid  it  before  the  King.  But  the  King  was 
obdurate.  In  vain  the  Prince  promised  retrench- 
ment and  reform  ;  the  King  heard  him  unmoved. 
The  King's  position  was  much  stronger  than 
in  1787,  when  the  Prince  had  forced  his  hand. 

VOL.  i.  U 


306  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

From  a  variety  of  causes  George  III.  was  now 
popular  with  the  country.  The  violence  of  the 
French  Revolution  had,  by  contrast,  increased  the 
popularity  of  the  monarchy  in  England.  It  had 
also  shattered  the  Whig  party.  The  Prince  was 
estranged  from  Fox,  the  only  man  who  could  have 
carried  the  matter  of  his  debts  through  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  he  had  no  friends  of  importance 
in  either  House  of  Parliament.  The  King  was 
master  of  the  situation,  and  could  dictate  terms 
to  his  son.  His  terms  were  these : — The  Prince 
of  Wales  must  marry  some  Protestant  Princess  of 
Germany.  With  so  large  a  royal  family  of  sons 
and  daughters  there  seemed  no  danger  to  the 
succession  to  the  throne.  But  none  of  them 
was  married  except  the  Duke  of  York,  and  his 
marriage  had  turned  out  badly ;  moreover,  the 
Duchess  had  no  children,  and  the  doctors  said  she 
was  unlikely  ever  to  have  any.  The  unhappiness 
of  this  marriage  of  policy  did  not  deter  the  King 
from  urging  a  similar  marriage  on  his  eldest  son. 
His  terms  were  absolute.  If  the  Prince  would  not 
marry  as  he  wished,  he  would  not  move  a  step  to 
have  his  debts  paid.  Indeed  he  would  go  further, 
and  instruct  the  Government  to  oppose  any,  and 
every,  application  in  Parliament. 

At  first  the  Prince  refused  to  entertain  the  idea, 
as  he  had  refused  before.  He  knew  that  he  was  in 
honour  bound  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  though  he 
would  not  publicly  acknowledge  his  marriage  to  her, 
yet  in  his  heart  he  recoiled  from  the  perjury  involved 
by  his  deserting  her  and  marrying  some  one  else.  It 
was  a  struggle  between  his  conscience  and  his  neces- 


THE  FIRST  SEPARATION  307 

sities ;  and  while  this  struggle  was  going  on  there 
came  the  momentous  decision  of  the  Court  of  Privi- 
leges, dissolving  the  marriage  of  Prince  Augustus 
Frederick  and  Lady  Augusta  Murray.  This  de- 
cision, pronounced  by  the  highest  legal  authorities 
in  the  realm,  not  only  annulled  the  marriage,  but 
expressly  left  the  Prince  free  to  marry  again  if  he 
would.  Coming  when  it  did,  the  pronouncement 
was  not  without  influence  on  the  volatile  mind  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  It  did  not  quiet  his  con- 
science altogether,  but  it  stifled  it.  It  shifted  the 
responsibility  from  his  own  shoulders  to  those  of 
the  eminent  jurists  who  gave  the  decision,  and 
built  a  golden  bridge  for  him  to  retreat,  if  he 
wished,  from  his  solemn  engagement  to  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert.  Yet  even  so  he  hesitated,  for  despite 
their  occasional  quarrels  caused  by  his  infidelities, 
and  the  difficulties  which  arose  from  her  religion, 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  still  the  first  woman  in  the 
world  to  him,  and  so  far  as  he  loved  any  one  he 
loved  her.  While  he  stood  thus  at  the  parting 
of  the  ways,  his  evil  genius  appeared  on  the  scene 
in  the  shape  of  Frances,  Countess  of  Jersey.1 

Lady  Jersey,  who  before  her  marriage  had  been 
known  as  the  "  beautiful  Miss  Twysden,"  was  the 
daughter  of  an  Irish  Bishop,  and  married  Lord 
Jersey,  who  held  high  office  in  the  court  of  George 
III.  Ever  susceptible  to  the  charms  of  female  beauty, 
the  fickle  Prince  fell  a  victim  to  her  wiles.  At  the 
time  the  Prince  came  under  her  influence  Lady 

1  Frances,  Countess  of  Jersey,  daughter  of  the  Bishop  of  Raphoe, 
who  married  the  fourth  Earl  of  Jersey,  Lord  Chamberlain  and  Master 
of  the  Buckhounds. 


308  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

Jersey  was  well  past  her  youth,  and  the  mother  of  a 
numerous  family — indeed  she  was  already  a  grand- 
mother. To  the  Prince  her  mature  age  was  an 
additional  attraction,  for,  in  the  earlier  part  of  his 
life,  he  always  preferred  women  older  than  himself. 
Lady  Jersey  was  still  in  the  meridian  of  her  charms, 
and  she  was  undoubtedly  a  fascinating  woman. 
Wraxall  speaks  of  her  "  irresistible  fascination  and 
charm."  Her  beauty  was  of  a  type  which  appealed 
wholly  to  the  senses,  but  she  had  wit  and  ambition 
with  it.  She  was  a  passionate,  an  unprincipled,  and 
intriguing  woman,  yet  withal  a  very  fine  lady.  She 
was  a  great  friend  of  Lady  Harcourt,1  and  through 
her  a  favourite  of  Queen  Charlotte.  From  the 
moment  that  chance  threw  her  in  the  Prince's  way 
she  used  all  her  arts  to  enslave  him,  and  before 
long  he  was  completely  subjugated.  Her  rank 
and  position  at  court  made  her  different  from  those 
other  ladies  of  whom  he  had  made  easy  conquests, 
and  the  difference  lent  a  zest.  Queen  Charlotte  soon 
came  to  know  of  the  Prince  of  Wales's  infatuation 
for  Lady  Jersey.  The  Queen  posed  as  a  dragon 
of  virtue,  and  no  doubt  she  was  so,  but  in  this 
case,  so  far  from  disapproving  of  her  son's  liaison, 
she  seemed  rather  to  encourage  it ;  at  least  she 
did  not  withdraw  her  favour  from  Lady  Jersey, 
who  stood  higher  with  her  than  before.  Queen 
Charlotte  was  anxious  to  break  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's 
influence  over  her  son,  and  Lady  Jersey,  knowing 
this,  at  once  set  to  work  to  undermine  it.  She  piqued 
the  Prince's  vanity  by  repeating  the  current  gossip 

1  Lady  Harcourt  was  Lady  of  the  Bedchamber  to  Queen  Charlotte  ; 
Lord  Harcourt  was  Master  of  the  Horse  to  George  III. 


THE  FIRST   SEPARATION  309 

that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  cared  for  his  rank  alone. 
She  artfully  insinuated  that  his  continual  con- 
nection with  a  Roman  Catholic  was  the  sole 
cause  of  his  unpopularity,  she  exaggerated  the 
Protestant  prejudice  against  her,  she  sympathised 
with  the  Prince  in  his  money  troubles,  and  hinted 
that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  an  insuperable  obstacle 
to  their  settlement ;  she  made  light  of  that  lady's 
claims  upon  the  Prince,  she  urged  that  he  was  not 
bound  to  her  in  any  way,  that  he  was  perfectly 
free  to  marry  whom  he  wished.  Had  not  eminent 
lawyers  and  godly  bishops  decided  to  that  effect 
in  the  case  of  Prince  Augustus  Frederick  ?  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  was  taking  an  unfair  advantage  of 
an  act  of  boyish  folly.  Lady  Jersey  knew  the 
wishes  of  the  King  and  Queen  with  regard  to 
the  Prince's  marriage  to  a  German  princess,  and 
she  imagined  that  if  she  could  bring  it  about  she 
would  advance  her  own  interests  at  court.  Such  a 
marriage  of  policy,  she  argued,  would  render  the 
breach  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  complete  and  final. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  would  not  affect  her  influence 
over  the  Prince,  for  he  was  sure  to  regard  his 
wife  with  indifference,  and  she  (Lady  Jersey)  would 
reign  supreme. 

The  Prince  listened  to  the  voice  of  the  temptress, 
and  the  fact  that  he  listened  showed  her  that  he 
was  yielding.  Perhaps  he  was  willing  to  be  per- 
suaded, and  when  persuasion  came  from  such  a 
quarter  he  could  not  resist  it.  The  combined  effect 
of  Lady  Jersey's  allurements  and  arguments,  and 
his  own  desperate  financial  condition,  proved  too 
strong  for  the  Prince ;  he  yielded  so  far  as  to  take 


310  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

the  preliminary  step  of  breaking  with   Mrs.   Fitz- 
herbert. 

The  blow  came  in  June  1794,  and  found  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  quite  unprepared.  She  was  then  stay- 
ing at  her  villa  near  Richmond,  and  the  Prince  was 
at  Brighton.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  intended  to  go  to 
Brighton  later.  In  the  meanwhile  the  Prince  had 
arranged  to  meet  her  at  dinner  at  the  Duke  of 
Clarence's  at  Bushey  on  a  certain  day.  She  had 
no  idea  that  anything  was  wrong  between  them  ; 
for  she  had  recently  received  the  following  hurried 
note  from  the  Prince  at  Brighton : — 

"  MY  DEAR  LOVE, — I  have  just  receiv'd  a  letter 
from  my  Sister  by  the  [illegible]  this  Evening, 
desiring  me  to  come  to  Windsor,  which  tho'  ex- 
ceptionally inconvenient  to  me  at  this  moment  in 
particular,  owing  to  my  being  to  give  my  annual 
Regimental  dinner  on  Wednesday,  I  mean  to 
comply  with,  &  set  out  to-morrow  morning  early, 
having  put  off  my  dinner  &  all  my  Company  to 
Friday.  I  therefore  mean  to  pass  Wednesday  in 
London  &  return  here  on  Thursday — I  have  just 
been  dining  at  the  General's,  where  we  have  had 
a  very  pleasant  and  a  very  jolly  party.  Adieu  my 
dear  Love,  excuse  haste, — Ever  Thine, 

"G.  P. 
"  BRIGHTON,  June  23,  I794-"1 

1  This  letter  was  found  among  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  papers  after  her 
death ;  it  was  one  of  the  few  which  escaped  being  burnt  in  1833, 
probably  because  she  had  mislaid  it.  It  is  endorsed  in  her  own 
handwriting,  "  This  letter  I  receaved  the  mor8  of  the  day  the  Prince 
sent  me  word,  he  would  never  enter  my  house  (Lady  Jersey's 
influence)."  The  letter  was  lent  me  by  one  who  cherishes  the 
memory  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert. 


THE   FIRST   SEPARATION  311 

When  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  arrived  at  the  Duke  of 
Clarence's  she  found  the  Prince  was  not  there.  But 
a  letter  from  him  was  given  to  her,  saying  he  would 
never  enter  her  house  again.  Lord  Stourton  gives 
the  following  account  of  the  episode,  which,  though 
it  does  not  wholly  tally  with  the  foregoing  letter, 
may  be  regarded  as  substantially  correct: — "Her 
first  separation  from  the  Prince  was  preceded  by  no 
quarrel  or  even  coolness,  and  came  upon  her  quite 
unexpectedly.  She  received,  when  sitting  down 
to  dinner  at  the  table  of  William  IV.,  then  Duke 
of  Clarence,  the  first  intimation  of  the  loss  of  her 
ascendency  over  the  affections  of  the  Prince ; 
having  only  the  preceding  day  received  a  note 
from  his  Royal  Highness,  written  in  his  usual 
strain  of  friendship,  and  speaking  of  their  appointed 
engagement  to  dine  at  the  house  of  the  Duke  of 
Clarence.  The  Prince's  letter  was  written  from 
Brighton,  where  he  had  met  Lady  Jersey.  From 
that  time  she  never  saw  the  Prince.  .  .  ." * 

Mrs.  Fitzherbert  knew  the  quarter  whence  the 
blow  came ;  she  knew  that  Lady  Jersey  was  with 
the  Prince,  and,  wounded  in  her  love  and  her 
pride,  she  made  no  answer  to  his  letter,  and  seems 
to  have  had  no  further  communication  with  him, 
at  least  directly.  As  the  Prince  gave  no  explana- 
tion for  his  extraordinary  conduct,  she  sought  none. 
She  abandoned  her  intention  of  going  to  Brighton 
for  the  summer,  and  for  a  short  time  she  appears 
to  have  gone  abroad.  Some  say  she  went  to 
Switzerland,  and  from  the  troubled  state  of  France 
at  the  time,  this  seems  a  probable  place  of  her 

1  Langdale,  op.  cit. 


312  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

retreat.  It  is  said  that  the  Prince  repented  after 
a  few  days,  and  was  anxious  to  see  her  and  offer 
an  explanation.  But  she  withdrew  without  a  word, 
and  left  the  field  clear  for  her  rival.  From  a 
tactical  point  of  view  this  was  a  mistake,  for  with 
so  unstable  a  character  as  the  Prince,  "out  of 
sight,  out  of  mind,"  was  always  true.  Her  silence 
seemed  to  him  a  proof  that  she  no  longer  loved 
him.  Perhaps,  had  she  been  more  yielding,  what 
happened  later  would  never  have  taken  place. 

Meanwhile  rumour,  which  had  so  often  prophe- 
sied the  separation,  was  busy  again.  Lord  Mor- 
nington  writes  to  Lord  Grenville  (Brighton,  July 
15,  1794) :  "  I  heard  last  night  from  no  less 
authority  than  Tom  the  Third1  that  a  treaty  of 
separation  and  provision  is  on  foot  (if  not  already 
concluded)  between  his  Royal  Highness  and  the 
late  '  Princess  Fitz.'  I  think  you  ought  to  marry 
his  Royal  Highness  to  some / 'row  immediately  ;  and 
I  am  told  (by  the  same  eminent  authority)  that 
he  is  very  well  disposed  to  take  such  a  wife,  as  it 
may  be  his  Majesty's  pleasure  to  provide  for  him." 2 

The  surmise  proved  correct.  Swayed  by  the 
prompting  of  self-interest,  worried  by  his  debts, 
influenced  by  the  sensuous  wiles  of  Lady  Jersey, 
resentful  at  the  way  in  which  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had 
received  his  communication,  giving  him  silence  when 
he  had  expected  tears,  contempt  instead  of  en- 
treaties and  reproaches,  the  Prince  stifled  the  voice 
of  his  conscience  and  made  the  plunge. 

1  Mr.  Thomas  William  Coke  of  Holkham,  first  Earl  of  Leicester 
(1752-1842),  also  known  as  "  King  Tom." 

2  Fortescue  MSS.     Historical  MSS.  Com.,  vol.  ii. 


THE  FIRST  SEPARATION  313 

Within  six  weeks  of  his  breaking  from  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  the  Prince  announced  to  the  King 
his  willingness  to  agree  to  his  terms  and  marry 
as  his  father  wished.  Having  at  last  brought 
himself  to  the  point,  the  Prince  did  not  care  who 
his  bride  was,  provided  his  debts  were  paid.  He 
had  to  seek  a  wife  among  the  Protestant  prin- 
cesses of  Germany,  and  he  is  reported  to  have 

said  "  that  one  d d  German  frow  was  as  good 

as  another."  Among  this  great  company  of  mar- 
riageable princesses  two  stood  out  pre-eminently — 
Louise,  Princess  of  Mecklenburg  -  Strelitz,  niece 
of  Queen  Charlotte,  and  Caroline,  Princess  of 
Brunswick,  niece  of  George  III. 

The  former  princess,  Princess  Louise,  was  in- 
finitely superior  in  beauty,  refinement,  and  abilities 
to  the  other.  She  afterwards  became  the  famous 
Queen  Louise  of  Prussia.  But  unfortunately  for 
England  (though  perhaps  fortunately  for  herself), 
the  Prince  would  not  hear  of  her  as  a  wife ;  she 
was  his  mother's  niece,  her  favourite  candidate  for 
the  honour  of  his  hand,  and  that  was  sufficient  for 
him  to  refuse  her.  He  had  no  wish  to  raise  a 
second  princess  of  the  house  of  Mecklenburg  to 
the  throne  of  England;  "one  of  that  family 
was  enough,"  he  said  rudely.  His  choice  fell  on 
his  first  cousin,  Caroline  of  Brunswick,  whose 
mother,  the  King's  sister,  was  by  birth  an  Eng- 
lishwoman. His  choice  is  said  to  have  been 
dictated  by  Lady  Jersey,  to  whom  the  unsuitable 
character  of  this  Princess  was  known  by  report. 
Nothing  could  be  farther  from  her  schemes  than 
that  the  Prince  should  fall  in  love  with  his  wife, 


3H  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

as  he  might  have  done  had  he  married  the  beau- 
tiful and  accomplished  Princess  Louise.  There- 
fore, to  quote  Lord  Holland  :  "  She  [Lady  Jersey] 
may  have  decided  his  preference  for  a  woman  of 
indelicate  manners,  indifferent  character,  and  not  very 
inviting  appearance,  from  the  hope  that  disgust  for 
the  wife  would  secure  constancy  to  the  mistress." 
Thus  came  about  the  Prince's  strange  choice  of 
Caroline  of  Brunswick,  strange  because  if  he  had 
searched  all  over  Europe  he  could  not  have  found 
a  princess  more  unsuited  to  him  in  every  respect. 
The  Prince  did  not  trouble  to  make  any  inquiries 
about  his  bride.  Having  made  up  his  mind  to 
marry,  he  acted,  as  he  always  did,  in  a  hurry ; 
perhaps  he  feared  that  if  he  delayed  or  hesitated 
longer  his  conscience  might  awaken.  He  went 
to  the  King  at  once.  "The  Prince  of  Wales," 
said  Lord  Liverpool,  "  told  his  father  very  abruptly 
one  day,  on  his  return  from  hunting,  that  he  wished 
to  marry.  '  Well,'  said  the  King,  '  I  will  then, 
with  your  consent,  send  some  confidential  person 
to  report  on  the  Protestant  princesses  of  the  stated 
age  and  character,  but  qualified  for  such  an  alliance. 
Your  wife  must  be  a  Protestant  and  a  princess :  in 
all  other  respects  your  choice  is  unfettered.'  '  It 
is  made,'  replied  the  Prince ;  '  the  daughter  of  the 
Duke  of  Brunswick.'  George  III.  replied  that  to 
his  own  niece  he  could  take  no  exception  ;  but  yet 
he  recommended  his  son  to  make  more  circum- 
stantial inquiries  about  her  person  and  manners, 
&c.  The  Prince  pretended  to  have  done  so."1 

1  "Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party."  Lord  Liverpool  in  1820  gave 
Lord  Holland  the  above  account,  saying  that  he  had  it  directly  from 
George  III. 


THE   FIRST   SEPARATION  315 

The  King  lost  no  time  in  communicating  the 
glad  news  to  his  Prime  Minister ;  he  wrote  to 
Pitt  :— 

"  WEYMOUTH,  August  24,  1794. 

"  Agreeable  to  what  I  mentioned  to  Mr.  Pitt 
before  I  came  here,  I  have  this  morning  seen  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  who  has  acquainted  me  with  his 
having  broken  off  all  connection  with  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert,  and  his  desire  of  entering  into  a  more 
creditable  line  of  life  by  marrying ;  expressing  at 
the  same  time  that  my  niece,  the  Princess  of 
Brunswick,  may  be  the  person.  Undoubtedly  she 
is  the  person  who  naturally  must  be  most  agree- 
able to  me.  I  expressed  my  approbation  of  the 
idea,  provided  his  plan  was  to  lead  a  life  that  would 
make  him  appear  respectable,  and  consequently 
render  the  Princess  happy.  He  assured  me  that  he 
perfectly  coincided  with  me  in  opinion.  I  then  said 
that  till  Parliament  assembled,  no  arrangement 
could  be  taken  except  my  sounding  my  sister, 
that  no  idea  of  any  other  marriage  may  be  en- 
couraged.1 

"G.  R." 

The  King  then  set  about  "sounding  his  sister," 
an  empty  phrase,  for  the  Duchess  of  Brunswick,2 
who  dearly  loved  her  native  country,  was  over- 
joyed at  the  brilliant  prospect  thus  opened  to  her 
daughter.  In  November  the  indispensable  Lord 

1  Lord  Stanhope's  "  Life  of  Pitt,"  ii.  20.    (Appendix.) 

2  Augusta,  eldest  daughter  of  Frederick  Prince  of  Wales  and  sister 
of   George    III.    (1737-1813),   married    Charles   William,   Duke   of 
Brunswick. 


316  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Malmesbury  was  despatched  to  Brunswick  to  settle 
the  details  of  the  marriage  treaty  and  to  bring  the 
bride  to  England. 

So  far  nothing  had  been  made  public  on  the  sub- 
ject, but  rumour,  always  busy,  travelled  even  to  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  in  her  retirement  and  whispered  of  the 
projected  marriage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  She 
had  heard  the  rumour  so  often  before,  that  at  first 
she  discredited  it,  for  she  remembered  his  vows  and 
promises.  But  the  rumour  became  so  persistent 
and  so  explicit  that  her  heart  misgave  her.  The 
Prince's  silence  too  was  ominous.  The  first  flush 
of  her  anger  and  grief  at  his  letter  had  now  sub- 
sided ;  she  could  review  matters  more  calmly.  She 
began  to  make  excuses  for  him  ;  she  attributed 
their  misunderstanding  to  Lady  Jersey,  but  she  did 
not  believe  that  lady  could  maintain  her  sway  very 
long ;  she  knew,  or  thought  she  knew,  the  Prince's 
character  too  well.  He  had  often  gone  astray 
before,  and  had  always  come  back  to  her,  after  a 
longer  or  a  shorter  interval,  penitent  and  full  of 
promises  of  amendment.  She  had  forgiven  so 
much  and  overlooked  so  much  that  this  time  she 
had  determined  to  be  sterner.  Therefore  she 
had  returned  no  answer  to  his  letter  (he  did  not 
indeed  ask  for  one)  and  had  gone  away  with- 
out a  word.  But  when  the  weeks  passed  and  she 
heard  nothing  from  him  it  began  to  be  borne  in 
upon  her  that  this  estrangement  was  likely  to  be 
serious.  She  blamed  herself  for  having  acted  so 
hastily  in  going  abroad.  She  returned  to  England 
in  September  and  went  to  her  villa  at  Richmond. 
There  the  rumour  again  assailed  her  that  the  Prince 


THE   FIRST  SEPARATION  317 

of  Wales  was  betrothed  to  a  German  princess.  Yet 
still  she  persisted  in  disbelieving,  in  hoping  against 
hope.  At  last,  in  November,  she  was  informed 
from  an  authoritative  source  that  the  Prince  was 
going  to  marry  his  cousin,  the  Princess  Caroline  of 
Brunswick. 

To  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  the  news  came  as  a  crushing 
blow,  an  overwhelming  revelation  of  the  Prince's 
perfidy.  It  was  a  public  repudiation  of  her,  even 
more  damaging  than  Fox's  memorable  speech  in 
Parliament.  Her  happiness,  her  dignity,  her  fortune, 
all  suffered  by  it,  and  though  she  knew  herself  to  be 
his  wife  in  the  sight  of  her  Church  (which  was  to  her 
in  the  sight  of  God),  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  she 
was  made  to  appear  nothing  but  a  cast-off  mistress. 
Lady  Augusta  Murray,  though  repudiated  by  the 
law,  had  at  least  consolation  in  the  fact  that  her 
marriage,  whether  legal  or  illegal,  was  publicly 
acknowledged  to  have  taken  place,  and  her  husband 
maintained  that  she  was  his  wife,  notwithstanding 
the  decision  of  the  courts  of  law.  Mrs.  Fitzherbert 
had  no  such  consolation,  The  fact  of  her  marriage 
had  been  twice  denied  in  Parliament,  and  her 
husband  now  had  publicly  repudiated  her.  She 
had  in  her  possession  documents  which  proved  be- 
yond all  doubt  that  she  was  married  to  the  Prince, 
and,  if  she  chose  to  publish  them,  her  character 
would  be  cleared.  It  was  in  her  power  to  inflict  a 
most  damaging  blow  on  the  man  who  had  thus  be- 
trayed her,  yet  the  thought  of  taking  such  revenge 
never  crossed  her  mind.  Even  now,  when  he  did 
her  the  cruellest  wrong  a  man  could  do  a  woman, 
she  loved  him,  and  was  disposed  to  make  excuses 


3i 8  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

for  him,  laying  the  blame  on  his  desperate  plight, 
and  on  his  evil  advisers  rather  than  on  him- 
self. 

Soon  after  the  news  of  the  betrothal  had  been 
communicated  to  her,  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  received  a 
communication  from  the  Prince's  lawyers  informing 
her  that  the  ^3000  a  year  which  had  been  granted 
to  her  since  her  marriage  would  be  continued  as 
before.  Her  first  impulse  was  to  refuse  it,  but  at 
this  point  her  uncle,  Mr.  Errington,  intervened, 
and  positively  forbade  her  to  do  so.  He,  like 
all  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  relatives  and  friends,  was 
full  of  sympathy  for  her,  but  he  knew  the  volatile 
character  of  the  Prince,  and  he  took  the  view  that 
the  separation,  which  had  now  come,  was  inevitable 
sooner  or  later — the  only  wonder  to  him  was  that 
it  had  not  come  before.  He  had  tried  in  1785  to 
dissuade  his  niece  from  this  ill-advised  union,  but 
as  she  was  inflexible,  he  satisfied  himself  that 
the  marriage  would  be  valid  according  to  the  law 
of  his  Church,  and  then  let  things  go.  So,  now 
that  separation  had  come,  he  was  too  wise  to  re- 
monstrate with  either  of  the  parties,  but  contented 
himself  with  looking  after  his  niece's  interests  as 
well  as  he  could.  The  task  was  easy,  for  Mr. 
Errington  found  the  Prince  more  than  ready  to 
meet  him  half-way.  The  offer  to  continue  the 
annuity  of  ^3000  was  quite  spontaneous  on  the 
part  of  the  Prince.  More  than  that,  he  had  re- 
quested the  Lord  Chancellor,  Lord  Loughborough, 
to  ask  the  King,  in  the  event  of  the  Prince's  death 
before  that  of  his  father,  to  take  it  upon  himself  to 
continue  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  the  pension.  To  this 


THE   FIRST  SEPARATION  319 

George  III.  consented  without  demur.     The  Lord 
Chancellor  wrote  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  : — 


"December  19,  1794. 

"  SIR, — In  obedience  to  your  Royal  Highness's 
commands,  I  had  the  honour  of  representing  to 
His  Majesty  the  anxiety  you  had  expressed  lest  a 
possible  though  very  improbable  event  might  in- 
terrupt the  continuance  of  that  provision  you  had 
thought  proper  to  make  for  a  Lady  who  had  been 
distinguished  by  your  regard,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  express  the  hope  your  Royal  Highness  enter- 
tained that  in  such  an  event  his  Majesty's  good- 
ness might  extend  to  the  prolongation  of  it.  His 
Majesty  was  pleased  to  receive  this  communication 
in  the  most  gracious  manner,  observing  at  the  same 
time  that  in  the  natural  order  of  things  the  occa- 
sion was  not  likely  to  present  itself,  but  that  your 
Royal  Highness  had  no  reason  to  entertain  any 
uneasiness  on  this  account. 

"  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  with  the  most  perfect 
devotion,  Sir,  your  Royal  Highness's  most  faithful 
and  most  obedient  servant, 

"  LOUGHBOROUGH." 

The  Prince  sent  this  letter  to  Miss  Pigot,  and 
asked  her  to  give  it  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  as  an 
additional  proof  of  his  care  for  her  future  welfare.1 
The  incident  is  creditable  both  to  the  Prince  and 

1  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  in  1833  placed  the  letter  among  her  papers 
deposited  at  Coutts's  Bank,  though  it  does  not  appear  in  the  list  given 
by  Langdale,  op.  cit,  p.  87.  It  is  published  here  by  permission  of  his 
Majesty  the  King. 


320  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

the  King.  George  III.,  though  he  did  not  know 
the  whole  truth  about  his  son's  illegal  marriage, 
recognised  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  special  claims 
on  his  consideration.  Queen  Charlotte  recognised 
them  also,  and  from  this  time  forward  both  the 
King  and  the  Queen  showed  her  unvarying  kind- 
ness. Perhaps  their  consciences  were  not  quite 
easy  about  the  way  she  had  been  treated,  and  this 
made  them  the  kinder.  Lord  Stourton  says  that 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  frequently  assured  him  : — "  That 
there  was  not  one  of  the  royal  family  who  had 
not  acted  with  kindness  to  her.  She  particularly 
instanced  the  Queen  ;  and,  as  for  George  III.,  from 
the  time  she  set  footing  in  England  till  he  ceased  to 
reign,  had  he  been  her  own  father,  he  could  not 
have  acted  towards  her  with  greater  tenderness  and 
affection."  This  reads  like  exaggeration,  unless  the 
words  "from  the  time  she  set  footing  in  England  " 
refer  to  her  return  from  Switzerland  in  1794,  when 
the  negotiations  for  her  future  provision  were  pend- 
ing. Previously  to  that  date  George  III.  does  not 
seem  to  have  shown  her  any  consideration,  and  his 
allusion  to  her  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Pitt  could  hardly 
be  described  as  paternal. 

No  hint  of  this  confidential  negotiation  reached 
the  public  ear.  The  air  was  thick  with  rumour  and 
conjecture,  but  beyond  the  fact  that  the  Prince  and 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  had  separated,  nothing  definite 
was  known.  Later  it  leaked  out  that  an  adequate 
provision  had  been  made  for  her,  and  evidence  of 
the  completeness  of  the  separation  was  given  to  the 
world  by  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  selling  her  mansion  in 
Pall  Mall  and  giving  up  her  house  at  Brighton. 


THE  FIRST  SEPARATION  321 

A  few  days  after  George  III.  had  guaranteed  the 
continuance  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  pension,  in  the 
event  of  the  prior  death  of  his  eldest  son,  the  King 
announced  the  forthcoming  marriage  in  a  speech 
which  he  delivered  to  both  houses  of  Parliament  on 
December  30,  1794.  "I  have,"  said  his  Majesty, 
"the  greatest  satisfaction  in  announcing  to  you  the 
conclusion  of  a  treaty  of  marriage  between  my  dear 
son,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  the  Princess  Caroline, 
daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick."  Then  he 
went  on  to  recommend  that  a  suitable  provision  be 
made  for  the  Prince's  establishment.  This  was  the 
first  official  announcement  of  the  marriage. 

The  public  curiosity  was  great.  What  would  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  say  ?  What  would  she  do  ?  But  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  uttered  no  cry,  and  made  no  complaint. 
She  closed  her  doors  to  h£r  friends,  and  went 
into  retirement  as  though  she  were  widowed,  thus 
escaping  the  sympathy  of  those  who  wished  her 
well,  and  the  curious  gaze  of  the  vulgar.  In  this,  as 
in  all  crises  of  her  life,  her  conduct  was  admirable 
in  its  dignity  and  self-restraint. 

Meanwhile  preparations  for  the  marriage  between 
the  Prince  of  Wales  and  Princess  Caroline  of  Bruns- 
wick went  on  apace.  Lord  Malmesbury  has  told 
us  in  full  the  story  of  his  mission  to  Brunswick,1 
where  the  bride-elect  resided.  There  is  no  need  to 
repeat  it  here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  Lord  Malmes- 
bury records  from  the  first  that  he  had  misgivings ; 
but  his  judgment  of  the  Princess  was  perhaps  pre- 
judiced. Princess  Caroline  had  her  good  qualities, 
but  they  were  apparently  those  which  this  courtier 

1  Malmesbury,  op.  cit. 
VOL.    I.  X 


322  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

and  diplomatist  was  incapable  of  appreciating.  She 
was  warm-hearted,  candid,  generous,  and  brave. 
There  was  nothing  mean  or  paltry  in  her  disposition, 
and  with  a  kindly  and  judicious  guide  she  might 
have  developed  into  a  fine  character.  Lord  Malmes- 
bury  saw  in  her  only  an  ungraceful  and  undignified 
young  woman,  whose  florid  good  looks  and  boister- 
ous good-humour  were  marked  by  an  utter  absence 
of  dignity  and  refinement.  Her  conversation  was 
broad,  sometimes  even  coarse ;  she  was  careless  in 
her  dress  and  not  very  cleanly  in  her  person.  She 
was  given  to  making  the  most  indiscreet  confidences, 
and  to  cultivating  excessive  familiarity  with  her 
inferiors.  The  mattresse  en  litre  of  the  Duke  of 
Brunswick  thus  spoke  of  her  to  Lord  Malmesbury, 
in  words  that  were  almost  prophetic :  "  She  is  not 
corrupted  ;  she  has  never  done  anything  really  bad, 
but  she  has  no  command  of  her  words  ;  she  confides 
in  every  one,  and  when  she  is  surrounded  in  London 
with  clever  intriguers,  everything  she  says  will  be 
repeated  and  distorted."  It  may  be  added  that, 
though  no  beauty,  she  was  not  bad-looking.  Mrs. 
Harcourt  writes,  "  In  looks  there  is  some  resem- 
blance to  what  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  when  young." 
And  again,  "She  is  all  openness  of  heart,  and  has 
not  a  shadow  of  pride." ' 

The  Princess  Caroline  made  no  concealment  of 
her  delight  at  the  prospect  of  becoming  Princess  of 
Wales ;  she  was  not  hypocritical  enough  to  profess 
either  respect  or  affection  for  her  future  husband ; 

1  Lord  Malmesbury's  "  Memoirs." 

3  "  Harcourt  Papers."    (The  Hon.  Mrs.  Harcourt  was  the  wife  of 
General  Harcourt.) 


THE   PRINCESS   CAROLINE   OF   BRUNSWICK 
(From  a  Picture  in  the  Palace  at  Brunswick} 


THE   FIRST   SEPARATION  323 

she  had  never  seen  him,  but  she  knew  all  about  him 
and  his  mode  of  life,  and  she  asked  many  questions 
concerning  matters  on  which  it  would  have  been 
better  taste  for  her  to  have  kept  silence.  She  had 
heard  the  rumours  of  his  marriage  with  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert,  but  she  regarded  it  as  a  left-handed  marriage, 
and  therefore  of  no  account — the  German  view. 
There  is  a  correspondence  published,  evidently 
spurious,  in  which  the  Prince  is  made  to  tell  his 
future  wife  quite  frankly  that  he  can  have  neither 
love  nor  respect  for  her,  that  he  is  marrying  simply 
to  pay  his  debts,  that  all  his  heart  is  given  to 
another  woman,  whom  he  regards  as  his  wife,  and 
that,  if  she  consulted  her  happiness,  it  would  be 
better  for  her  not  to  come  to  England.  The  Prin- 
cess is  made  to  reply  that  what  he  had  told  her  makes 
no  difference,  she  knows  her  duty.  These  letters 
must  be  forgeries,  for  many  genuine  letters  of  the 
Prince  to  Lord  Malmesbury  are  in  existence,  in 
which  he  urges  the  envoy  to  "set  off  instantly" 
and  bring  the  Princess  with  all  speed  to  England 
(probably  his  creditors  were  pressing),  to  which 
Lord  Malmesbury  replies  that  "not  an  hour  shall 
be  lost."  Yet  by  this  time,  though  Lord  Malmes- 
bury kept  a  discreet  silence,  many  unflattering 
reports  of  the  person,  character,  and  manners  of  the 
Princess  Caroline  were  being  circulated  about  the 
English  court,  and  must  have  reached  the  ears  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  He  heeded  them  not,  for 
the  articles  of  the  marriage-treaty  had  been  signed, 
and  more  important  still,  the  Prince  had  received 
assurances  that  his  debts  would  be  paid  in  full.  It 
was  too  late  to  draw  back  with  dignity,  even  if  he 


324  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

had  been  so  minded.  He  probably  did  not  care  a 
straw  for  these  rumours.  It  was  not  a  wife  he 
wanted,  but  money ;  and  so  long  as  the  wife  was 
the  means  of  his  getting  the  money,  he  cared  for 
little  else.  He  was  already  prejudiced  against  the 
Princess.  The  moment  Lady  Jersey  knew  that  the 
marriage-treaty  was  signed,  she  left  off  poisoning 
the  Prince's  mind  against  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and 
concentrated  all  her  energies  on  maligning  his 
betrothed  bride.  She  repeated  and  exaggerated  all 
the  gossip  and  scandal  she  could  gather  regarding 
the  Princess  Caroline  and  her  early  life.  Queen 
Charlotte,  who  was  annoyed  by  the  Prince's  curt 
refusal  of  her  niece,  the  Princess  Louise,  was  also 
prejudiced  against  Princess  Caroline.  Years  ago 
she  had  quarrelled  with  her  mother,  and  was 
prepared  to  keep  up  the  family  feud  with  the 
daughter.  She  even  consented  to  the  appointment 
of  Lady  Jersey  (though  the  relations  between  the 
Prince  and  that  lady  were  notorious)  as  lady-in- 
waiting  to  the  new  Princess  of  Wales. 

Lord  Malmesbury  brought  the  Princess  to  Eng- 
land in  July  1795.  Mrs.  Harcourt  had  attended 
her  from  Hanover,  and  Lady  Jersey  went  down  to 
meet  the  Princess  on  her  landing  with  smooth  words 
on  her  lips,  and  malice  and  hatred  in  her  heart. 
"  Thus  did  she  arrive  in  England,  conducted  by 
her  bitterest  enemy  (a  lady  well  practised  in  the  arts 
of  tormenting,  insulting,  and  degrading  a  rival)  to  a 
husband  half  estranged  already,  with  no  protection 
but  at  court,  where,  if  the  King  was  disposed  to 
take  part  against  his  heir-apparent,  old  resentments 
and  recent  disappointments  rendered  the  Queen 


THE  FIRST  SEPARATION  325 

averse  to  the  daughter  of  the  Duchess  of  Bruns- 
wick."1 

The  friendless  Princess  was  alone ;  her  mother  had 
parted  from  her  at  Stade,  and  it  was  not  permitted 
that  any  one  of  her  country-women  should  come 
with  her.  Her  habit  of  indiscreet  confidences  began 
at  once.  She  confided  to  Lady  Jersey  on  the  road 
to  London  the  tale  of  an  early  attachment  to  a  man 
of  inferior  birth,  and  Lady  Jersey  afterwards  repeated 
every  word  she  had  said  with  gross  exaggerations 
to  the  Prince  of  Wales.  The  story  of  her  arrival  in 
London  and  her  reception  by  the  Prince  of  Wales 
is  well  known.  As  soon  as  the  Princess  arrived  at 
St.  James's  Palace,  Lord  Malmesbury  went  to  tell 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  He  came  immediately  ;  it 
was  noticed  that  he  was  agitated.  What  followed 
is  best  told  by  Lord  Malmesbury  :  "I,  according 
to  the  established  etiquette,  introduced  (no  one  else 
being  in  the  room)  the  Princess  Caroline  to  him. 
She,  very  properly,  in  consequence  of  my  saying 
that  it  was  the  right  mode  of  proceeding,  attempted 
to  kneel  to  him.  He  raised  her  gracefully  enough 
and  embraced  her,  said  barely  one  word,  turned 
round,  retired  to  a  distant  part  of  the  apartment, 
and,  calling  to  me,  said  :  '  Harris,  I  am  not  well  : 
pray  get  me  a  glass  of  brandy.'  I  said  :  'Sir,  had 
you  not  better  have  a  glass  of  water  ? '  Upon 
which  he,  much  out  of  humour,  said  with  an  oath : 
'  No  ;  I  will  go  directly  to  the  Queen.'  And  away 
he  went." 

Surely  there  never  was  a  stranger  scene.  The 
Princess,  astounded  at  this  extraordinary  reception, 

1  Holland,  op.  at. 


326  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

exclaimed:  " Mon  Dieul  is  he  always  like  that?" 
Then  she  added,  "  I  find  him  very  fat,  and  not  at  all 
like  the  picture  sent  me."  Lord  Malmesbury  tried 
to  make  excuses  for  him,  but  the  Princess  was  much 
too  shrewd  to  be  imposed  upon.  She  was  much 
disappointed,  not  only  with  her  reception,  but  with 
the  person  of  her  future  husband,  and  she  proceeded 
to  make  many  more  uncomplimentary  remarks. 

In  the  evening  there  was  a  small  dinner  party  at 
St.  James's,  at  which  the  Prince  and  his  betrothed 
met  again.  The  Princess  had  by  now  recovered 
her  spirits  ;  she  was  probably  very  nervous,  she  was 
certainly  much  excited,  and  not  at  all  like  what  a 
modest  bride  should  be.  She  talked  incessantly. 
Lord  Malmesbury  speaks  of  her  "flippant,  rattling, 
affected  wit."  She  rallied  the  Prince  before  all  the 
company  on  his  well-known  penchant  with  absolute 
lack  of  discretion.  The  Prince  was  disgusted. 
Some  excuse  must  be  made  for  the  Princess  on  this 
occasion.  She  had  already  discovered  the  liaison 
between  her  future  husband  and  Lady  Jersey.  It 
hurt  her  to  the  quick,  and  she  assumed  this  air  of 
pertness  in  order  to  pretend  that  she  did  not  care. 
"The  first  moment  I  saw  my  futur  and  Lady 
Jersey  together  I  knew  how  it  all  was,"  she  said 
later,  "and  I  said  to  myself,  'Oh,  very  well.'  I 
took  my  partie"*  When  the  dinner  was  over  the 
King  and  Queen,  and  the  other  members  of  the 
royal  family  came  to  welcome  the  Princess.  It 
was  noticed  that  the  King  was  cordial  and  affec- 
tionate, but  the  Queen  was  very  cold. 

During  the  three  days  that  elapsed  between  the 

1  Bury,  op.  at. 


THE  FIRST  SEPARATION  327 

arrival  of  the  Princess  Caroline  and  the  marriage, 
the  Prince  of  Wales  was  in  a  whirl  of  feeling  and 
nervous  agitation.  He  found  his  bride  even  less  to 
his  taste  than  Lady  Jersey  had  predicted  ;  he  already 
disliked  her,  and  this  dislike,  says  Lord  Malmesbury, 
"  when  left  to  herself  the  Princess  had  not  the  talent 
to  remove,  but  by  observing  the  same  giddy  manners 
and  the  same  coarse  sarcasm  increased  it  until  it 
became  positive  hatred."  Yet  it  was  not  to  Lady 
Jersey  that  the  Prince's  thoughts  reverted,  but  to 
his  discarded  wife,  Maria  Fitzherbert.  Not  all  the 
allurements  of  Lady  Jersey,  nor  all  the  potations  in 
which  he  freely  indulged,  could  dull  the  voice  of 
conscience.  His  love  for  her  had  returned  with 
tenfold  force,  and  he  shrank  with  abhorrence  from 
doing  her  the. wrong  involved  by  this  marriage,  more 
especially  doubtless  because  the  bride  was  so  little 
to  his  liking.  He  bitterly  upbraided  his  father  and 
mother  for  having  urged  him  to  marry.  He  cursed 
his  own  weakness  in  yielding.  The  King  resented 
this  vacillation,  and  said  testily  that  he  would  take 
the  responsibility  of  breaking  off  the  marriage  if  the 
Prince  really  wished  it.  But  as  this  involved  the 
non-payment  of  the  Prince's  debts,  they  were  merely 
idle  words.  The  Queen,  who  suspected  the  truth, 
contented  herself  by  saying,  "  You  know,  George,  it 
is  for  you  to  say  whether  you  can  marry  the  Princess 
or  not,"  thus  adroitly  shifting  the  responsibility  off 
her  own  shoulders.  The  Prince  lacked  the  courage 
to  face  the  situation,  yet  he  was  torn  between  two 
opinions.  The  day  before  his  marriage  he  rode 
down  to  Richmond,  and  galloped  passed  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert's  house,  thus  showing  with  whom  his 


328  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

thoughts  were.  She  saw  him  riding  by ;  no  doubt 
he  intended  that  she  should  see  him,  and  perhaps 
had  she  made  any  sign,  even  then,  at  the  eleventh 
hour  he  would  have  broken  off  the  match.  But  she 
made  none.  At  the  clubs  bets  were  offered  freely 
against  the  Prince's  marriage  coming  off.  The 
wagers  were  lost. 

The  Prince  of  Wales  was  married  to  the  Princess 
Caroline  of  Brunswick  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  St. 
James's,  on  the  evening  of  April  8,  1795.  The 
marriage  was  celebrated  with  the  usual  state  and 
magnificence,  and  with  every  sign  of  public  rejoicing. 
Though  the  Princess  did  not  please  her  husband, 
she  had  already  won  the  favour  of  the  populace. 

The  Prince  was  in  a  highly  nervous  state  all 
day,  which  increased  as  the  hour  of  the  ceremony 
drew  near.  On  his  way  from  Carl  ton  House 
to  the  Chapel  Royal,  he  said  to  his  chamber- 
lain, Lord  Moira,  who  was  sitting  opposite  to  him 
in  the  coach,  "It  is  no  use,  Moira,  I  shall  never 
love  any  woman  but  Fitzherbert."  To  this  the 
discreet  Lord  Moira  made  no  reply.  The  Prince's 
appearance  and  conduct  in  the  Chapel  Royal  were 
much  commented  upon.  He  scarcely  looked  at 
his  bride,  and  appeared  more  like  a  victim  going 
to  the  scaffold  than  a  bridegroom  to  the  altar. 
He  was  dazed  and  bewildered,  and  evidently  under 
the  influence  of  violent  emotion.  The  Duke  of 
Bedford,  one  of  the  two  unmarried  dukes  who 
attended  him  to  the  altar,  said  he  was  under  the 
influence  of  brandy.  But  this  could  hardly  have 
been  the  only  cause  of  his  agitation,  for  he  re- 
peated the  words  coherently.  If  the  Prince  had 


THE   FIRST   SEPARATION  329 

been  drinking  it  was  in  the  hope  that  he  might 
drown  his  conscience.  Lord  Holland  comes  nearer 
the  truth  when  he  says,  "  This  manifest  repugnance 
to  the  marriage  was  attributed  by  many  at  the  time 
to  remorse  at  the  recollection  of  a  similar  ceremony 
which  had  passed  between  him  and  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert." *  At  one  time  the  remembrance  seemed 
to  be  too  much  for  the  Prince,  for  he  rose  from 
his  knees  in  the  midst  of  a  prayer.  The  Arch- 
bishop paused :  but  the  King  stepped  forward  and 
whispered  something  to  his  son ;  the  Prince  knelt 
down  again  and  the  ceremony  proceeded  to  the 
close  without  further  interruption. 

After  the  marriage  the  King  and  Queen  held  a 
drawing-room.  Then  the  royal  family  supped  in 
private,  and  later  the  newly-married  pair  drove  to 
Carlton  House.  So  ended  this  unhappy  day. 

The  popular  enthusiasm  was  great.  The  whole 
of  London  was  illuminated,  and  the  church  bells 
were  rung  all  over  the  kingdom.  Even  at  Rich- 
mond, in  the  seclusion  of  Marble  Hill,  some  echo 

1  There  are  endless  stories  about  what  took  place  at  the  marriage. 
Lady  Maria  Stuart  wrote  that  the  Prince  "  looked  like  death."  Wraxall, 
in  his  "  Memoirs,"  writes,  "  that  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Dorset, 
and  the  Duchess  (Isabella)  of  Rutland,  all  of  whom  were  present  at 
the  ceremony,  told  him  that  .  .  .  Dr.  Moore,  then  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  when  reading  the  matrimonial  service  in  the  Chapel 
Royal,  gave  unequivocal  proofs  of  his  apprehension  that  some  engage- 
ment of  a  moral  or  religious  nature  antecedently  contracted  by  the 
Prince  might  form  a  bar  to  the  union  which  he  was  about  to  celebrate  ; 
for  when  he  came  to  the  words  relative  to  '  either  knowing  of  any 
impediment,'  he  laid  down  the  book  and  looked  earnestly  for  a 
second  or  two  at  the  King,  as  well  as  at  the  royal  bridegroom.  The 
latter  was  much  affected,  and  shed  tears.  Not  content  with  this  tacit 
allusion  to  the  report,  the  Archbishop  twice  repeated  the  passage  in 
which  the  Prince  engages  to  live  from  that  time  in  nuptial  fidelity 
with  his  consort." 


330  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

of  the  popular  rejoicings  reached  the  ears  of  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert.  She  seems  to  have  cherished  a  hope 
that  the  marriage  would  not  take  place,  that  even 
at  the  last  hour  the  Prince  would  draw  back  and 
refuse  to  perjure  himself.  "Such  implicit  con- 
fidence and  blind  credulity  did  she  place  in  him," 
says  one,  "that  when  Orlando  Bridgeman,  now 
Lord  Bradford,  went  to  inform  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  of 
the  Prince's  marriage,  she  would  not  believe  it  until 
he  swore  that  he  himself  had  been  present  at  the 
ceremony,  and  when  he  did  so,  she  fainted  away." * 

1  Bury,  op.  cit. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE    PRINCE'S    WILL 

(1796) 

FOR  some  time  after  the  marriage  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  to  Princess  Caroline  of  Brunswick,  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert  lived  in  retirement  at  Marble  Hill. 
She  suffered  much  in  health  and  spirits ;  "  her 
heart,"  she  told  a  friend,  "was  almost  broken." 
Her  position  as  "wife  yet  no  wife"  was  a  difficult 
one  truly,  and  had  she  followed  her  inclination,  she 
would  have  continued  in  seclusion,  or  have  left 
England  for  a  time.  But  her  retirement  from  the 
scene,  as  her  friends  and  well-wishers  reminded  her, 
would  be  liable  to  misinterpretation.  Why  should 
she  hide  her  head  as  one  ashamed  ?  After  all  she 
had  done  no  wrong,  the  wrong  had  been  done  to  her, 
and  to  withdraw  altogether  from  the  world  would  be 
to  play  into  her  enemies'  hands,  and  give  colour  to 
the  many  baseless  rumours  circulated  against  her. 
So,  upon  reflection,  she  resolved  to  act  in  the 
same  way  as  she  had  done  after  Fox's  denial  of  her 
marriage  in  the  House  of  Commons — to  make  no 
difference  in  her  mode  of  life,  to  go  about  exactly  as 
if  nothing  had  taken  place,  and  to  let  people  say 
what  they  would.  But  it  was  easier  in  1787  than  in 
1795  ;  then  she  had  her  husband  by  her  side,  now 

she  was  alone.     Nevertheless  she  braced  herself  to 

331 


332  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

the  effort,  and  the  summer  of  the  following  year 
(1796)  found  her  once  more  in  London.  Her  house 
in  Pall  Mall  had  been  given  up,  and  in  place  of  it 
she  bought  another,  at  the  corner  of  Tilney  Street 
and  Park  Lane.  The  entrance  was  in  Tilney 
Street,  but  the  house  fronted  Park  Lane,  separated 
from  it  by  a  tiny  strip  of  garden.  On  the  ground 
floor  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  retained  three  rooms  espe- 
cially for  her  own  use,  a  boudoir,  bedroom,  and 
dressing-room,  the  windows  overlooking  the  Park.  * 
The  house  was  admirably  adapted  for  entertaining, 
and  contained  handsome  reception  rooms.  These 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert  threw  open  to  her  friends,  and  they 
were  soon  filled.  Very  general  sympathy  was  felt 
for  her,  combined  with  admiration  for  the  quiet 
courage  and  dignity  with  which  she  bore  her 
troubles.  Many  of  her  friends  opined  that  she  was 
well  rid  of  the  Prince.  Her  social  position  never  stood 
better  than  in  the  year  which  followed  the  marriage 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Princess  Caroline,  not 
even  in  1787.  In  one  respect  it  stood  higher  than 
then,  for  though  abandoned  by  the  Prince,  the  royal 

1  This  house,  No.  6,  Tilney  Street,  Park  Lane,  continued  to  be  the 
London  residence  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  for  over  forty  years,  from  1796 
until  her  death  in  1837.  It  then  passed  into  the  possession  of  her 
adopted  daughter,  the  Hon.  Mrs.  George  Dawson  Damer,  nte 
Seymour,  who  lived  there  for  many  years.  It  afterwards  became  the 
property  of  the  third  Earl  Manvers,  and  is  now  occupied  by  the 
Dowager  Countess  Manvers.  By  the  courtesy  of  Lady  Manvers  I 
have  seen  the  rooms  that  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  retained  for  her  own 
use  on  the  ground  floor,  with  the  windows  fronting  Park  Lane. 
Except  that  the  furniture  is  more  modern,  the  rooms  are  un- 
changed from  what  they  were  in  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  day ;  a  solitary 
relic  remains  in  the  shape  of  a  jewel-box  with  the  initials  "  G.R."  In 
the  dining-room  there  hangs  a  portrait  of  George  IV.  by  Sir  Thomas 
Lawrence  and  one  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  by  Romney.  The  latter  I 
reproduce  in  this  book  by  the  kind  permission  of  Lord  Manvers. 


THE   PRINCE'S  WILL  333 

family,  including  the  King  and  Queen,  were  her 
friends.  Lord  Stourton  gives  an  authoritative  ac- 
count of  this  period  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert's  life.  "  One 
of  her  great  friends  and  advisers,  Lady  Clermont, 
supported  her  on  this  trying  occasion,  and  counselled 
her  to  rise  above  her  feelings  and  to  open  her  house 
to  the  town  of  London.  She  adopted  this  advice, 
much  as  it  cost  her  to  do  so,  and  all  the  fashionable 
world,  including  all  the  royal  dukes,  attended  her 
parties.  Upon  this,  as  upon  all  occasions,  she  was 
principally  supported  by  the  Duke  of  York,  with 
whom,  through  life,  she  was  always  united  in  the 
most  friendly  and  confidential  relations." l 

Meanwhile  the  married  life  of  the  Prince  and 
Princess  of  Wales,  which  had  begun  badly,  was 
going  from  bad  to  worse.  The  Prince  started  with 
aversion,  the  Princess  with  indifference.  Tolera- 
tion and  forbearance  might  have  prevented  disaster, 
but  these  qualities  neither  of  them  possessed. 
None  the  less,  for  the  first  few  months  the  Prin- 
cess honestly  tried  to  do  her  best  to  win  the 
Prince's  affection.  Her  best,  it  must  be  confessed, 
was  not  very  good ;  she  could  not  curb  the  levity 
of  her  temperament  or  the  flippancy  of  her  tongue. 
Her  father  had  told  her  "to  observe  everything 
and  say  nothing,"  but  though  she  kept  this  saying 
constantly  before  her,  she  was  always  making  re- 
marks in  public,  which  were  in  the  very  worst  of 
taste.  A  great  many  of  them  were  about  Mrs. 
Fitzherbert,  whom  she  habitually  designated  as 
"Fat  —  fair  —  forty."  She  frequently  rallied  the 
Prince  on  this  subject,  and,  full  of  remorse  as  he 

1  Langdale,  op.  tit. 


334  MRS.   FITZHERBERT 

was  for  his  treatment  of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  the 
Princess's  clumsy  gaiety  irritated  him  almost  to 
madness.  A  few  weeks  after  the  marriage  he 
asked  Lord  Malmesbury  "what  he  thought  of 
this  sort  of  manners  ?  "  and  bitterly  reproached  him 
for  not  having  warned  him  about  the  Princess. 
Lord  Malmesbury  punctiliously  replied  that  he 
had  only  received  instructions  from  the  King  to 
conclude  the  marriage-treaty,  and  "  such  matters 
as  manners "  did  not  come  within  the  scope  of  his 
commission.  Yet  even  he  began  to  reproach  him- 
self that  he  had  not  spoken  in  time,  and  to  fear 
the  worst.  "It  is  impossible  to  foresee  or  con- 
ceive any  comfort  from  this  connection,"  he  writes, 
"  in  which  I  lament  very  much  having  taken  any 
share,  however  passive  it  was." l  The  differences 
between  the  ill -mated  pair  were  aggravated  by 
Lady  Jersey,  who  deliberately  sought  in  every  way 
to  poison  the  mind  of  the  Prince  against  the  Prin- 
cess, and  to  prejudice  the  Princess  still  further 
against  her  husband.  She  repeated  to  the  Prince 
all  the  indiscreet  and  unflattering  remarks  which 
Caroline  was  perpetually  making  about  the  person 
and  conduct  of  her  husband ;  on  the  other  hand, 
she  flaunted  her  liaison  with  the  Prince  before  his 
wife's  eyes.  The  Princess  determined  to  remove 
her  lady-in-waiting,  but  she  was  at  first  unable 
to  do  so,  for  Lady  Jersey  had  been  placed  about 
her  by  Queen  Charlotte.  The  Queen  seems  to 
have  used  Lady  Jersey  as  a  sort  of  spy  to  inform 
her  of  the  shortcomings  of  her  detested  daughter- 
in-law.  She  threw  over  Lady  Jersey  the  aegis  of 

1  Malmesbury,  op.  cit. 


THE   PRINCE'S  WILL  335 

her  own  respectability ;  she  frequently  gave  her 
private  audiences,  and  afterwards  set  her  down 
to  play  cards  with  the  princesses,  her  daughters 
— a  proceeding  at  least  peculiar,  for  the  Queen 
prided  herself  on  the  immaculate  virtue  of  her 
intimate  circle.  At  last  the  Princess  made  a  formal 
complaint  to  the  King.  The  good  old  King  took 
his  niece's  part,  and  Lady  Jersey  was  removed, 
despite  the  jeers  of  the  Queen,  who  declared  it 
was  "all  nonsense,"  and  the  opposition  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales. 

The  Prince's  sense  of  injury  was  increased  by 
the  debates  in  Parliament  concerning  his  debts,  and 
by  what  he  considered  to  be  the  treachery  of  the 
King  and  the  Government.  He  said  he  had  been 
promised,  if  he  married  according  to  his  father's 
wishes,  that  his  debts  would  be  discharged  in  full, 
and  his  income  increased.  The  Duke  of  Clarence, 
speaking  in  the  House  of  Lords,  said  :  "He  would 
not  betray  anything  that  passed  in  private  con- 
versation, but  it  was  a  matter  of  public  notoriety 
that,  before  the  marriage  took  place,  it  was  stipu- 
lated that  the  Prince  should,  in  the  event  of  the 
union,  be  disencumbered  of  his  debts."  The  result 
was  very  different.  Pitt  proposed  that  the  Prince's 
income  should  be  increased  to  ,£125,000  a  year, 
exclusive  of  the  revenues  of  the  Duchy  of  Corn- 
wall ;  that  all  expenses  of  the  marriage  should  be 
defrayed,  and  £20,000  be  granted  for  the  additional 
furnishing  of  Carl  ton  House.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  allotted  nothing  for  the  payment  of  the 
Prince's  debts,  and  proposed  that  £73,000  per 
annum  should  be  deducted  from  the  Prince's 


336  MRS.  F1TZHERBERT 

income  by  the  Treasury  until  his  debts  were  paid, 
thus  bringing  the  Prince's  available  income  down 
to  a  modest  figure.  Against  this  the  Prince  pro- 
tested in  vain.  Parliament  viewed  both  him  and 
his  debts  with  marked  disapproval,  and,  at  last, 
the  Prince  had  to  take  what  he  could  get.  As 
the  Duke  of  Clarence  expressed  it  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  "His  royal  brother  was  in  the  situation 
of  a  man  who,  if  he  cannot  get  a  particular  haunch 
of  venison,  will  take  any  other  haunch  rather  than 
go  without."  But  the  Prince  was  not  satisfied 
with  his  haunch ;  he  again  made  an  ostentatious 
parade  of  his  poverty  ;  he  gave  no  entertainments  ; 
he  reduced  his  household,  and  sulked  both  in  public 
and  private. 

The  unfortunate  Princess  was  not  to  blame 
for  the  bad  faith  of  the  King  and  the  Govern- 
ment, but  it  seems  to  have  increased  the  Prince's 
resentment  against  her.  His  debts  were  not 
paid,  and  he  was  burdened  with  a  wife  whom 
he  detested.  Quarrels  now  became  frequent,  for 
the  Princess  had  a  high  spirit,  and  was  quick  to 
retort.  There  were  faults  on  both  sides,  but  on 
the  Prince's  side  the  blame  was  the  greater.  Still, 
a  semblance  of  union  was  kept  up  between  the 
unhappy  pair  until  the  birth  of  the  Princess  Char- 
lotte, which  took  place  on  January  7,  1796,  exactly 
nine  months  after  the  marriage.  The  Prince  was 
present  at  the  birth,  and  he  behaved  with  much 
good  feeling.  He  received  with  satisfaction  the 
congratulations  of  the  great  officers  of  state,  who 
were  in  attendance,  on  the  birth  of  an  heiress 
presumptive  to  the  throne.  To  the  Prince  the 


THE   PRINCE'S  WILL  337 

birth  of  this  child  meant  something  more  than  that ; 
it  meant  his  deliverance  from  an  almost  insupport- 
able thraldom.  In  any  case,  the  Prince  would  have 
disliked  his  wife,  for  they  were  quite  unsuited  to 
one  another,  but  into  his  dislike  there  entered  an 
element  of  physical  repulsion  which  he  could  not 
(even  if  he  would)  overcome.  The  Prince  had 
unequalled  powers  of  self-deception ;  by  this  time 
he  had  persuaded  himself  that  he  had  married  the 
Princess  of  Wales,  not  because  he  wished  to  obtain 
the  payment  of  his  debts,  but  from  patriotism  and 
a  sense  of  duty.  He  had  sacrificed  his  own  inclina- 
tions in  order  to  provide  for  the  direct  succession 
to  the  throne.  Now  that  purpose  was  accomplished, 
there  was  no  need  to  continue  the  sacrifice,  and 
he  determined  to  escape  from  an  intolerable  situa- 
tion without  delay.  He  had  been  forced  into  this 
detested  marriage,  a  victim  of  political  expediency. 
In  his  eyes,  it  was  merely  a  marriage  of  state,  con- 
ferring no  obligations  on  him  beyond  the  one  he 
had  fulfilled. 

The  day  after  the  birth  of  the  Princess  Charlotte 
the  Prince  was  seized  with  one  of  his  sudden  and 
mysterious  attacks  of  illness,  brought  on,  no  doubt, 
by  the  agitation  and  excitement  consequent  on  the 
event.  The  attack,  which  was  very  violent,  was 
treated  as  usual  with  profuse  bleeding,  which  left 
him  in  a  state  of  extreme  weakness.  The  Prince 
was,  or  thought  that  he  was,  in  danger  of  his  life  ; 
and  his  thoughts  flew  back  to  the  woman  whom  he 
loved  more  than  any  one  else  in  the  world,  the  woman 
whom  he  still  regarded  as  his  wife,  Maria  Fitzher- 
bert.  He  was  full  of  remorse  for  the  wrong  he  had 

VOL.    I.  Y 


338  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

done  her,  the  sin  of  it  lay  heavy  on  his  soul,  and 
his  conscience  prompted  him  to  make  her  all  pos- 
sible amends.  As  soon  as  he  had  rallied  a  little,  he 
drew  up  the  following  will  in  her  favour,  acknow- 
ledging her  to  be  his  wife,  and  leaving  her  every- 
thing he  had  in  the  world  : — 

"  This  is  my  last  Will  and  Testament ',  written  in 
my  own  hand,  and  executed  by  me,  signed  and 
sealed  this  loth  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of 
Our  Lord  1796. 

"  GEORGE  P.1 


"  By  this,  my  last  Will  and  Testament,  I  now  be- 
queathe,  give,  and  settle  at  my  death  all  my  worldly 
property  of  every  description,  denomination  and 
sort,  personal  and  other,  to  my  Maria  Fitzherbert, 
my  Wife,  the  Wife  of  my  heart  and  soul.  2 
Although  by  the  laws  of  this  country  she  could  not 
avail  herself  publicly  of  that  name,  still  such  she  is 
in  the  eyes  of  Heaven,  was,  is,  and  ever  will  be  such 
in  mine.  And  for  the  truth  of  which  assertion  I 

1  This  will,  the  most  interesting  of  the  Fitzherbert  papers,  is  the 
document  marked  on  Langdale's   list  (op.  cit.  p.  87),  "No.  4,  Will 
written  by  the  late  King  George  IV."     I  am  permitted  to  quote  from 
it  the  above  extracts  (all  that  relates  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert)  by  gracious 
permission  of  his   Majesty   the   King.     This   will,  written  in  1796, 
was  given  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  in  1799,  and 
was  always  kept  by  her  in  a  sealed  packet.     This  packet  was  endorsed 
by  her,  "  In  case  of  my  death,  this  packet  not  to  be  opened,  upon 
any  account  whatever,  but  by  the  person  I  shall  appoint  by  my  will." 
In  1833  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  placed  this  packet,  with  other  papers,  at 
Coutts's  Bank,  where  it  remained  until  1905,  when  it  was  removed, 
with  the  rest,  to  the  private  archives  at  Windsor. 

2  The  italics  are  everywhere  those  of  the  Prince. 


THE  PRINCE'S  WILL  339 

appeal  to  that  Gracious  God  Whom  I  have  here 
invoked  to  witness  this  my  last  disposition  of  my 
property,  together  with  such  explanations  and 
declarations  as  are  necessary  for  me  to  make,  to 
enable  me  to  quit  this  life  with  a  clear  conscience, 
and  even  without  a  sigh,  except  at  the  thought  of 
leaving  Her  (and  perhaps  too  without  first  receiv- 
ing the  blessing  of  her  forgiveness),  who  is  my  real 
and  true  Wife,  and  who  is  dearer  to  me,  even 
millions  of  times  dearer  to  me,  than  that  life  I  am 
now  going  to  resign. 

"  As  much  has  been  said  in  the  world  relative  to 
our  separation,  I  take  it  upon  myself  now  thus  to 
declare  that  She  (my  Maria  Fitzherbert)  has  been 
most  infamously  traduced  ;  that  her  Person,  her 
Heart,  and  her  Mind  are,  and  ever  have  been,  from 
the  first  moment  I  knew  her  down  to  the  present 
moment,  as  spotless,  as  unblemished,  and  as  per- 
fectly pure  as  anything  can  be  that  is  human  and 
mortal.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  most  infamous  and 
basest  of  calumnies,  my  too  credulous  and  susceptible 
heart,  which  knew  no  other  feeling  in  life  but  for 
Her,  could  never  have  been  brought,  even  for  a 
single  instant,  to  harbour  a  thought  of  separating 
from  such  Worth  ;  nor  was  such  a  suspicion  (O  my 
God,  as  Thou  well  knowest  /)  voluntarily  sought  by 
me.  (But  as  entering  further  upon  this  point  would 
involve  others  whom  I  pray  Heaven  to  forgive,  and 
lead  to  more  than  I  am  now  able  to  write,  I  shall 
bury  this  in  oblivion.) 

"As  to  Her  (I  must,  in  justice  to  myself,  so  far 
say),  I  am  most  confident  that  had  not  similar  vile, 
base,  and  scandalous  wretches  calumniated  me  to 


340  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Her,  and  represented  me  in  lights,  and  in  a  manner, 
I  here  aver,  I  have  never  deserved,  she  never 
could,  or  would,  have  persevered  with  such  ap- 
parent cruelty  and  obduracy  so  foreign  to  the 
generous  feelings  of  her  soul,  in  rejecting  for  so 
great  a  length  of  time,  every  explanation,  every 
submission,  every  step  my  tortured  heart  frequently 
tried,  and  was  most  ready  and  anxious,  to  make,  and 
which  finally  drove  me  to  despair. 

"  I  now  therefore,  George  Augustus  Frederick, 
Prince  of  Wales,  Duke  of  Cornwall,  &c.  &c.  &c. 
do  by  this  my  last  Will  and  Testament  leave,  will, 
and  bequeathe  after  my  death,  all  my  Estates,  all 
my  Property,  all  my  Personalities  of  whatever  kind 
or  sort  to  my  Maria  Fitzherbert,  ivho  is  my  wife 
in  the  eyes  of  God,  and  who  is,  and  ever  will  be, 
such  in  mine.  .  .  -1 

"  I  desire  to  mention  Miss  Pigot,2  who  has  been 
so  uniformly  kind  and  attentive  in  her  conduct  both 
to  my  Maria  Fitzherbert  as  well  as  to  me  that  it  is 
quite  impossible  that  we  must  not  both  of  us  feel 
most  tenderly  for  her.  I  consequently  did  all  that 
was  in  my  power  whilst  I  enjoyed  life  for  her,  by 
settling  five  hundred  pounds  annually  on  her  during 

1  Here  follows  a  long,  detailed  description  of  the  Prince's  estates, 
property,  and   personalities,  which   included  all  the  money  at   his 
bankers',  certain  land  near  Carlton  House  not  the  property  of  the 
Crown,  all  the  furniture  and  pictures  at  Carlton  House,  all  the  plate, 
china,  wines,  books,  pictures,  "  all  my  rings,  trinkets,  watches,  boxes," 
all  the  land  in  or  about  the  Pavilion  at  Brighton,  all  the  property 
and  furniture  in  the  Pavilion  and  in   the  next  house  to  it,  all  the 
horses  and  carriages,  "  in   short,  every  article  of  property  that  is 
mine." 

2  Miss  Pigot  was  the  elderly  lady  who  had  lived  with  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert as  dame  de  compagnie  since  her  marriage  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales  in  1785. 


MRS.    FITZHERBERT 

(From  a  Painting  by  GEORGE  COSWAY,  R.A.,  by  permission  of 
Lady  BLANCHE  HAYGARTH) 


THE   PRINCE'S  WILL  341 

the  natural  course  of  my  Life.  I  therefore  do  not 
doubt  that  my  Maria  Fitzherbert  will  try  to  make 
her  easy  and  comfortable,  unless  she  should  first, 
through  the  interests  of  my  Family,  who  are  all 
acquainted  with  Miss  Pigot,  and  with  my  regard 
for  her,  procure  her  a  comfortable  maintenance  for 
the  rest  of  her  life  as  one  of  the  Housekeepers 
in  one  of  the  Royal  Palaces  and  which  will  place 
her  in  an  easy  and  respectable  independence  for 
the  rest  of  her  days. 

"  My  Friend,  the  Earl  of  Moira,  who  I  have  ever 
most  affectionately  loved,  will  I  trust  not  object,  as 
the  last  testimony  of  his  tried  and  long  experienced 
regard,  to  the  being  my  Executor,  and  to  the  seeing 
of  this  my  Will  most  scrupulously  adhered  to. 
And  that  he  together  with  [Admiral]  Payne  will 
guard  and  protect  during  their  lives  for  the  sake 
of  their  departed  Friend  my  beloved  and  adored 
Maria  Fitzherbert,  my  Wife,  in  short  my  Second 
Self. 

"  Having  now  I  trust  made  all  the  restitution 
that  is  in  my  power  to  this  most  excellent  Woman, 
there  only  remains  for  me  to  hope  that  when  she 
is  made  acquainted  with  this  entire  and  free  dis- 
position of  my  Property  to  Her,  of  this  my  candid 
avowal  and  of  the  just  tribute  I  have  paid  to  her 
merit,  she  will  no  longer  withhold  her  forgiveness 
from  me,  accompanying  it  with  her  blessing.  I 
assure  her  as  I  now  do,  that  I  shall  die  blessing 
her,  my  only  true  and  real  Wife,  with  my  part- 
ing breath,  and  praying  the  Almighty  and  Most 
Merciful  Being,  to  whom  in  this  paper  I  have 
opened  the  innermost  recesses  of  my  heart  and  of 


342  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

my  soul,  to  bless,  protect,  and  guard  her  through 
this  life,  looking  forward  to  the  moment  when  our 
Souls  in  a  better  world  may  again  be  united,  never 
more  to  part. 

"  I  desire  that  I  may  be  buried  with  as  little  pomp 
as  possible,  and  that  my  constant  companion,  the 
picture  of  my  beloved  Wife,  my  Maria  Fitzherbert, 
may  be  interred  with  me,  suspended  round  my 
neck  by  a  ribbon  as  I  used  to  wear  it  when  I  lived, 
and  placed  right  upon  my  heart}  I  likewise  wish 
and  desire  of  my  adored  Maria  Fitzherbert  that, 
whenever  she  quits  this  life  and  is  interred,  my 
coffin  should  be  taken  up  and  placed  next  to  hers, 
wherever  she  is  to  be  buried.  And,  if  she  has 
no  objection,  that  the  two  inward  sides  of  the  two 
coffins  should  be  taken  out,  and  the  coffins  should 
then  be  soldered  together,  as  the  late  King's  and 
Queen's  were.2  It  is  therefore  my  wish  to  be 
buried  not  in  my  Family  Vault,  but  anywhere^  as 
privately  as  possible,  in  order  that  my  ashes  may 
repose  in  quiet,  until  they  are  placed  next  to  hers, 
or  united  with  hers. 

"  Having  thus  closed  the  scene  ot  a  life  most 
full  of  trouble  and  misery,  I  have  now  only  to  bid 
a  last  farewell  to  Her  who  whilst  She  and  I  were 
One  did  constitute  the  sole  and  only  happiness  of 
that  life  I  am  now  going  to  resign.  None  have  I 
enjoyed  since  we  separated,  and  none  would  I  ever 
expect  to  enjoy  under  any  circumstances  whatever, 
unless  we  were  once  more  to  be  united.  To  Her 

1  We  shall  see  that  this  request  was  literally  carried  out  later. 

2  George  II.  and  Queen  Caroline  were  buried  like  this  in  West- 
minster Abbey. 


THE   PRINCE'S   WILL  343 

therefore  my  Maria,   my   Wife,  my  Life,  my  Soul 
do  I  bid  my  last  adieu. 

"  Written  and  signed  by  me  with  my 
own  hand. 

"GEORGE  P.1 

©. 

"CARLTON  HOUSE,  Jany.  10,  1796." 

Two  days  later  the  Prince  added  the  following 
codicil : — 

"In  looking  over  the  foregoing  sheets  I  perceive 
I  have  omitted  a  circumstance  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance to  my  peace  and  quiet.  That  is,  that 
in  the  beginning  of  the  last  year  or  quite  at  the 
end  of  the  preceding  year,  in  consequence  of  an 
application  from  me  to  the  King,  through  Lord 
Loughborough,  that  his  Majesty  would  be  so 
gracious  (in  case  of  my  death  before  my  Maria 
Fitzherberf]  as  to  be  pleased  to  continue  to  her 
for  her  Life  the  settlement  I  had  for  some  years, 
before,  made  upon  Her  of  three  thousand  pounds 

1  Yet  it  was  of  the  man  who  could  write  this  document  that 
Thackeray  declared  :  "  I  know  of  no  sentiment  he  ever  distinctly 
uttered.  Documents  are  published  under  his  name,  but  people  wrote 
them — private  letters,  but  people  spelt  them.  He  put  a  great  George 
P.  or  George  R.  at  the  bottom  of  the  page  and  fancied  he  had 
written  the  paper ;  some  bookseller's  clerk,  some  poor  author,  some 
man  did  the  work  ;  saw  to  the  spelling,  cleaned  up  the  slovenly 
sentences  and  gave  the  lax  maudlin  slipslop  a  sort  of  consistency" 
("  The  Four  Georges  ").  Fortunately,  apart  from  this  document,  which 
was  written  by  the  Prince  alone,  without  help,  there  exist  many 
private  letters,  published  and  unpublished,  written  by  him  with 
his  own  hand,  which  give  the  lie  to  this  statement.  Many  of  these 
letters  are  admirably  written,  perfectly  correct  in  spelling  and  ex- 
pressed with  grace  and  felicity  of  diction.  Except  for  a  certain 
redundance  of  expression  he  was  an  admirable  letter- writer. 


344  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

annually  during  the  natural  term  of  my  Life,  the 
Chancellor  by  the  gracious  command  of  the  King 
wrote  to  me,  in  consequence,  that  his  Majesty  did 
not  think  such  an  event  likely  to  happen,  but  in 
case  that  it  should  be  so  that  he  would  be  answer- 
able for  it,  which  claims  my  warmest  acknowledg- 
ments, nor  am  I  acquainted  with  language  sufficiently 
energetick  to  express  half  what  I  feel  to  the  King 
for  this  instance  of  his  paternal  and  gracious 
goodness  and  consideration :  if  I  did  I  should 
endeavour  to  express,  though  faintly,  the  grateful- 
ness of  my  heart.  My  mind  therefore  is  quite  at 
rest  on  this  circumstance,  as  I  place  the  fullest 
and  most  ample  reliance  and  faith  in  this,  the 
King's  most  kind  and  gracious  promise.  Lord 
Loughborough's  own  letter  (of  which  I  received 
a  copy  written  in  Miss  Pigot's  hand,  and  which 
will  be  found  amongst  my  papers)  I  gave  to  Miss 
Pigot  to  deliver  to  my  Maria  Fitzherbert,  which 
I  entertain  not  the  slightest  doubt  but  she  did. 
In  which  event  it  is  in  the  possession  of  my  Maria 
Fitzherbert.  But  supposing  that  she  [Miss  Pigot] 
may  not  have  done  so,  or  that  it  may  not  have 
been  in  her  power  to  do  so,  then  it  must  be  in 
hers.  This  was  a  circumstance  which  escaped 
my  memory,  and  was  of  such  serious  import,  and 
of  so  essential  a  nature  to  my  feelings,  that  I 
should  have  deemed  myself  guilty  of  the  most 
unpardonable  and  scandalous  neglect,  if,  upon  the 
revision  of  all  I  have  here  written,  I  had  omitted 
it,  especially  as  it  tells  so  much  for  the  honour, 
and  is  for  the  interest,  of  all  parties.  It  also 
testifies  to  what  I  owe  in  gratitude  (and  which  I 


THE   PRINCE'S   WILL  345 

trust  my  heart   has   never   in   any   instance   been 
deficient  in)  to  the  King  as  my  Father. 

"  GEORGE  P. 


"CARLTON  HOUSE,  Jany.  12,  1796." 

"The  "whole  of  this  Paper  is  written^  signed  and 
sealed  by  own  hand.     So  help  me  God. 

"  GEORGE  P." 


The  question  forces  itself  upon  us :  Was 
the  Prince  sincere  when  he  wrote  this  will  ? 
There  is  no  doubt  that  he  was  absolutely  sincere. 
He  wrote  it  at  a  time  when  he  believed  himself 
to  be  in  danger  of  his  life,  and  to  right  a  wrong 
he  had  done  to  a  woman  whom  he  truly  loved. 
Men  do  not  lie  to  themselves  at  such  a  time.  It 
was  at  once  his  confession  and  his  apologia;  a 
human  document  which  reveals  the  man  as  he 
was,  weak  and  emotional  maybe,  but  very  far 
removed  from  the  heartless  voluptuary  his  enemies 
have  depicted  him.  He  did  not  write  it  for  publi- 
cation, nor  with  the  object  of  enticing  Mrs.  Fitzher- 
bert  to  return  to  him.  Not  until  three  and  a  half 
years  later  (when  she  had  already  promised  to 
return  subject  to  the  sanction  of  her  Church)  did 
the  Prince  show  her  this  will.  That  he  acted 
deliberately,  and  not  on  the  impulse  of  the 
moment,  in  making  it  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
he  also  made  two  copies  of  it — one  he  gave 
to  the  King  under  his  seal,  and  one  to  Lord 


346  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

Moira,  whom  he  had  appointed  his  executor. 
The  original  draft  he  kept  himself — it  was  the 
one  he  later  gave  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert.  The  docu- 
ment gains  a  special  significance  from  the  date  on 
which  it  was  written,  three  days  after  the  birth  of 
the  heiress  presumptive  to  the  throne.  In  the  light 
of  subsequent  events  it  would  seem  to  have  been 
the  first  step  the  Prince  took  to  escape  from  a 
condition  of  affairs  that  had  become  intolerable 
to  him. 

The  second  step  was  not  long  in  coming.  The 
Princess  Charlotte  was  christened  on  February  n, 
1796,  and  the  Princess  of  Wales  was  declared  to 
be  convalescent.  The  Prince  of  Wales  removed 
from  Carlton  House  to  Windsor  Castle,  and  a  few 
weeks  later  came  the  inevitable  separation.  The 
Princess  has  herself  given  the  following  account  of 
what  happened  to  a  friend :  "  Well,  after  I  lay  in 
—je  vous  jure  'tis  true,  upon  my  honour,  upon  my 
soul  'tis  true — I  receive  a  message  through  Lord 
Cholmondeley  to  tell  me  I  never  was  to  have  de 
great  honour  of  inhabiting  de  same  room  wid  my 
husband  again.  I  said :  '  Very  well,  but  as  my 
memory  was  very  short,  I  begged  to  have  dis 
polite  message  in  writing  from  him.'  I  had  it, 
and  was  free." 1  The  letter  the  Prince  wrote  to 
his  wife  on  this  occasion  has  been  often  quoted, 
but  we  repeat  it  here. 

"  MADAM, — As  Lord  Cholmondeley  informs  me 
that  you  wish  I  would  define,  in  writing,  the  terms 
upon  which  we  are  to  live,  I  shall  endeavour  to 

1  Bury,  op.  cit. 


THE   PRINCE'S   WILL  347 

explain  myself  on  that  head,  with  as  much  clearness, 
and  with  as  much  propriety  as  the  nature  of  the 
subject  will  admit.  Our  inclinations  are  not  in  our 
power,  nor  should  either  of  us  be  held  answerable 
to  the  other,  because  nature  has  not  made  us  suit- 
able to  each  other.  Tranquil  and  comfortable 
society  is,  however,  in  our  power ;  let  our  inter- 
course, therefore,  be  restricted  to  that,  and  I  will 
distinctly  subscribe  to  the  condition  which  you 
required  through  Lady  Cholmondeley,  that  even 
in  the  event  of  any  accident  happening  to  my 
daughter  (which  I  trust  Providence  in  its  mercy 
will  avert),  I  shall  not  infringe  the  terms  of  the 
restriction  by  proposing,  at  any  period,  a  connection 
of  a  more  particular  nature.  I  shall  now  finally 
close  this  disagreeable  correspondence,  trusting 
that,  as  we  have  completely  explained  ourselves 
to  each  other,  the  rest  of  our  lives  will  be  passed 
in  uninterrupted  tranquillity.  I  am,  Madam,  with 
great  truth,  very  sincerely  yours, 

"  GEORGE  P. 
"  WINDSOR  CASTLE,  April  30, 1796." 

The  Princess  waited  a  week  before  replying  to 
this  letter,  and  then  she  wrote  in  French,  agreeing 
to  her  husband's  terms.  But  she  said  "the  credit 
of  this  arrangement  belongs  to  you  alone,"  and  she 
declared  that  it  would  be  her  duty  to  give  "an 
example  of  patience  and  resignation  under  every 
trial,"  a  declaration  which  was  no  more  fulfilled  than 
her  husband's  hope  that  "  the  rest  of  our  lives  may 
be  passed  in  uninterrupted  tranquillity." 


348  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

The  Princess,  whose  pride  was  much  wounded 
by  this  cavalier  treatment,  first  thought  of  returning 
to  Brunswick  to  her  parents,  and  then,  for  she  was 
a  woman  of  many  moods,  of  appealing  to  the  King 
to  bring  about  a  reconciliation.  The  King  did 
make  the  attempt,  but  he  found  that  the  Prince 
disliked  his  wife  too  intensely  to  listen  to  any 
proposal  on  the  subject.  The  Princess  could  not 
be  expected  to  understand  that  she  inspired  her 
husband  with  positive  disgust ;  she  did  not  enter- 
tain the  same  feeling  towards  him,  though  she  did 
not  like  him.  She  had  a  quick  temper  and  a  ready 
tongue ;  she  did  not  mean  half  what  she  said  ;  she 
spoke  in  haste  and  repented  at  leisure,  and  she 
thought  that  the  Prince  was  like  her.  Though 
she  had  agreed  to  the  separation,  she  could  not 
believe  that  the  estrangement  would  be  permanent. 
For  a  time  she  kept  a  suite  of  rooms  at  Carlton 
House  as  a  pied  d  terre,  but  the  Prince  would  not 
cross  the  threshold  of  his  palace  while  she  was  there, 
so  at  last  she  retired  to  a  villa  at  Charlton  near 
Blackheath.  She  was  allowed  free  access  to  her 
daughter,  and  attended  the  drawing-rooms  at  St. 
James's  and  other  court  ceremonies.  The  King 
treated  her  with  unvarying  kindness  and  respect, 
and  public  feeling  was  wholly  on  her  side ;  in  fact 
she  bid  fair  to  become  the  idol  of  the  populace. 
Whenever  the  Princess  appeared  in  public  she  was 
cheered  to  the  echo,  and  she  eagerly  welcomed 
these  popular  demonstrations  in  her  favour.  It 
was  natural  for  her  to  do  so,  but  indiscreet,  as 
it  added  to  her  husband's  dislike  an  element  of 
jealousy. 


THE   PRINCE'S  WILL  349 

So  matters  continued  for  two  years,  and  still  the 
Princess  did  not  give  up  all  hope  of  a  reconciliation, 
the  more  so  as  for  a  long  time  the  Prince  had 
showed  unmistakable  signs  of  having  wearied  of 
Lady  Jersey.  The  Princess  persisted  in  regard- 
ing Lady  Jersey  as  the  cause  of  her  troubles, 
whereas  she  was  only  an  incident  in  them.  The 
Prince's  manner  towards  his  former  favourite  was 
cold  and  distant,  and  he  avoided  her  upon  every 
possible  occasion;  indeed  he  had  never  been  intimate 
with  her  since  his  separation  from  the  Princess  of 
Wales.  There  was  no  open  rupture,  for  Lady 
Jersey  obstinately  refused  to  take  any  hint,  how- 
ever broad,  of  the  Prince's  desire  to  be  rid  of 
her ;  he  on  his  part  was  unwilling,  or  afraid,  to 
quarrel  publicly  with  her.  The  Prince  was  much 
embarrassed  by  the  persistence  of  the  lady,  and 
he  employed  one  of  his  friends,  Edward  Jerning- 
ham,  "  The  Poet,"  to  give  her  a  strong  hint  to 
leave  him  alone.  Edward  Jerningham  went  to 
see  Lady  Jersey,  whom  he  found  "very  artful." 
He  writes : — 

"  Lady  Jersey  is  now  in  the  Transit  of  Venus. 
It  was  very  evident  her  reign  was  drawing  to  its 
Period.  I  believe  I  have  mentioned  this  circum- 
stance before,  but  the  singularity  attending  the 
progression  of  this  affair  is  that  the  Lady  will  not 
acknowledge  any  difference  or  diminution  of  regard 
on  his  side.  This  embarrasses  the  Prince  exceed- 
ingly, as  he  wishes  to  let  her  down  gently,  and  to 
separate  amicably,  which  he  thinks  cannot  be  done 
if  he  should  dismiss  her  in  town,  and  unequivocally. 
I  have  given  her  intimations  and  broad  suggestions 


350  MRS.  FITZHERBERT 

which  she  will  not  understand,  or  at  least  does  not 
seem  to  understand."  l 

Though  Lady  Jersey  refused  to  admit  it,  she 
must  have  known  in  her  heart  that  her  day  was 
over.  The  Prince  made  no  secret  that  he  was 
weary  of  her.  She  had  appealed  wholly  to  his 
senses,  and  his  senses  were  surfeited.  The  Princess 
of  Wales,  who  from  afar  watched  every  movement 
of  her  husband  with  keen  interest,  rejoiced  greatly  at 
the  downfall  of  her  enemy,  but  she  soon  discovered 
that  she  would  not  be  the  gainer.  The  Prince's 
heart  had  long  since  gone  back  to  the  only  woman 
he  ever  loved,  the  woman  who  still  regarded  herself 
as  his  wife,  Maria  Fitzherbert. 

1  Letter  of  Mr.  Edward  Jerningham  to  the  Hon.  Lady  Jerningham 
(1798).     "Jerningham  Letters." 


END    OF   VOL.    I 


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